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PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 

BT  15  . W66  1893  ' — a 

Wood,  Charles  James. 
Survivals  in  Christianity 

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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
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https://archive.org/details/survivalsinchrisOOwood_0 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


mm 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


STUDIES  IN  THE  THEOLOGY  OF 
DIVINE  IMMANENCE 


SPECIAL  LECTURES 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  EPISCOPAL  THEOLOGICAL 
SCHOOL  AT  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  IN  1892 


BY 

y 

CHARLES  JAMES  WOOD 


Nefo  gfltR 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 

AND  LONDON 

1893 


All  rights  reserved 


IV 


/ 


Copyright,  1893, 

By  MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 


NorfeootJ  IPress : 

J.  S.  Cushing  8c  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


* 


V 


TO 

dEfje  IfobmntJ  Samuel  29.  JEcConnclI,  29.59. 

WHOSE  LOYAL  HEART  AND  QUICKENING 
MIND  HAVE  BEEN  FOR  ME  A 


STAY  AND  A  STIMULUS 


PREFACE. 


40 


This  preface  is  merely  explanatory.  If  an  author 
thinks  he  ought  to  apologise  for  his  book,  then  he 
ought  never  to  publish  that  book.  Besides,  the  Cer¬ 
berus  of  literary  criticism  is  not  mollified  by  sops  of 
apology. 

My  purpose  in  sending  forth  this  book  is  to  help 
honest  and  earnest  truth-seekers  both  to  find  what  is 
real  and  true  in  the  realm  of  religious  thought,  and 
to  accept  with  equal  honesty  and  intelligence  the 
Evangel  of  Jesus  the  Christ.  Whenever  men  thus 
find  and  accept  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  they  will 
also  realise  and  rejoice  in  the  organic  unity  of  the 
Church,  for  which  I  hopefully  pray. 

In  citing  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Covenant  I 

have  followed  Tischendorf’s  Greek  text.  I  have 

made  my  own  translation  in  order  to  draw  attention 

vii 


PREFACE. 


•  *  • 

Vlll 

to  points  which  our  familiarity  with  the  received 
versions  causes  us  to  overlook.  The  notes  were 
added  for  the  same  reason  that  a  short  bibliography 
was  prepared,  —  to  assist  those  desirous  of  studying 
further  into  the  subject. 

Genuine  criticism,  from  “those  who  know,”  I  do 
not  deprecate,  but  welcome.  Truth  is  all,  and  I  am 
naught,  save  only  as  I  yield  myself  an  utterance  of 
the  Living  Truth  Who  abides  in  the  heart  of  things. 

I  am  glad  that  I  am  under  obligations  to  my  friend 
Mr.  E.  M.  Kingsbury  for  revising  for  me  the  proof- 
sheets  of  this  book. 

St.  Paul’s  Rectory,  Lock  Haven,  Pa.,  U.S.A. 

St.  Matthias’  Day,  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I. 

The  Introduction . ' . .  .  5 

LECTURE  II. 

The  Idea  of  God . 31 

LECTURE  III. 

The  Church . .  .  .  .  83 

LECTURE  IV. 

The  Forgiveness  of  Sins . 143 

4 

LECTURE  V. 

The  Resurrection . 199 

LECTURE  VI. 

Eternal  Life . 249 

Bibliography . 293 

Index . 301 


IX 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


Hooker .  I  know  my  poor  weak  intellects,  most  noble  Lord,  and 
how  scantily  they  have  profited  by  my  hard  painstaking.  Com¬ 
prehending  few  things,  and  those  imperfectly,  I  say  only  what 
others  have  said  before,  wise  men  and  holy  ;  and  if  by  passing 
through  my  heart  into  the  wide  world  around  me,  it  pleaseth  God 
that  this  little  treasure  shall  have  lost  nothing  of  its  weight  and 
pureness,  my  exultation  is  then  the  exultation  of  humility.  Wis¬ 
dom  consisteth  not  in  knowing  many  things,  nor  even  in  knowing 
them  thoroughly  ;  but  in  choosing  and  in  following  what  conduces 
the  most  certainly  to  our  lasting  happiness  and  true  glory.  And 
this  wisdom,  my  Lord  of  Yerulam,  cometli  from  above. 

Landor,  Imaginary  Conversations. 

Some  men  distinguish  errour  from  truth  by  calling  their  Adver¬ 
saries  new  and  of  yesterday  ;  and  certainly  this  is  a  good  signe  if 
it  be  rightly  applied  :  for  since  all  Christian  doctrine  is  that  which 
Christ  taught  his  Church  and  the  spirit  enlarged,  or  expounded, 
and  the  Apostles  delivered,  we  are  to  begin  the  Christian  cera  for 
our  faith  and  parts  of  religion  by  the  period  of  their  preaching : 
our  account  begins  then,  and  whatsoever  is  contrary  to  what  they 
taught  is  new  and  false,  and  whatsoever  is  besides  what  they 
taught,  is  no  part  of  our  religion  (and  then  no  man  can  be  preju¬ 
diced  for  believing  it  or  not)  ;  and  if  it  be  adopted  into  the  con¬ 
fessions  of  the  Church,  the  proposition  is  always  so  uncertain,  that 
it  is  not  to  be  admitted  into  the  faith,  and  therefore  if  it  be  old  in 
respect  of  days,  it  is  not  necessary  to  be  believed  :  if  it  be  new,  it 
may  be  received  into  opinion  according  to  its  probability,  and  no 
sects  or  interests  are  to  be  divided  up  on  such  accounts. 

Bp.  Jeremy  Taylor,  Sermon,  Of  Christian  Prudence. 

,  Works,  II.  275. 


2 


The  idols  and  false  notions  which  have  already  preoccupied  the 
human  understanding,  and  are  deeply  rooted  in  it,  not  only  so 
beset  men’s  minds,  that  they  become  difficult  of  access,  but  even 
when  access  is  obtained,  will  again  meet  and  trouble  us  in  the 
instauration  of  the  sciences,  unless  mankind,  when  forewarned, 
guard  themselves  with  all  possible  care  against  them.  Four  species 
of  idols  beset  the  human  mind,  to  which  (for  distinction’s  sake) 
we  have  assigned  names :  calling  the  first  the  Idols  of  the  tribe  ; 
the  second,  the  Idols  of  the  den  ;  the  third,  Idols  of  the  market ; 
the  fourth,  Idols  of  the  theatre. 

Bacon,  Novum  Organum ,  I.  38,  39. 

St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  referring  to  the  philosopher  Hera- 
kleitos,  wrote,  Strom.  Y.  14  :  “If  you  wish  to  trace  out  that  saying, 
‘  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear,’  you  will  find  it  expressed 
by  the  Ephesian  in  this  manner  :  ‘  Those  who  hear  and  do  not 
understand  are  like  the  deaf,’  and,  ‘eyes  and  ears  are  bad  witnesses 
to  men  having  rude  souls.’  ” 

What  we  call  Christianity  is  a  vast  ocean,  into  which  flow  a 
number  of  spiritual  currents  of  distant  and  various  origin  :  certain 
religions,  that  is  to  say,  of  Asia  and  of  Europe,  the  great  ideas  of 
Greek  wisdom,  and  especially  those  of  Platonism.  Neither  its 
doctrine  nor  its  morality,  as  they  have  been  historically  developed, 
are  new  or  spontaneous.  What  is  essential  and  original  in  it  is 
the  practical  demonstration  that  the  human  and  the  divine  nature 
may  coexist,  may  become  fused  into  one  sublime  flame ;  that 
holiness  and  pity,  justice  and  mercy,  may  meet  together  and 
become  one  in  man  and  in  God.  What  is  specific  in  Christianity 
is  Jesus  —  the  religious  consciousness  of  Jesus. 

Amiel,  Journal. 


O 

o 


SYNOPSIS. 


1.  A  new  method  in  the  study  of  Theology  is  demanded  by  the 
conditions  of  the  present  day,  in  order  to  eliminate  from  popular 
religious  thought  some  pagan  survivals. 

2.  Illustration  of  the  mixture  of  ethnic  religious  notions  with 
Christianity  in  the  early  centuries  of  this  era. 

3.  An  attempt  to  give  some  of  the  causes  of  the  incomplete 
reception  of  Christianity :  Among  the  Apostles,  post-apostolic 
Christians,  ante-Nicene  and  mediaeval  theologians. 

4.  This  accounts  for  a  survival  in  Christian  Theology  of  some 
incongruous  and  alien  elements  which  contradict  the  very  essence 
of  the  revelation  of  Jesus,  and  enfeeble  it  as  an  instrument  for 
the  Salvation  of  the  World. 

5.  Therefore  we  should  eliminate  these  Survivals  as  elements 
which  are  practically  injurious.  Por  this  purpose  a  method  of 
Theological  study  is  here  suggested  and  the  outline  given. 

6.  The  Subjects  are  to  be  treated  in  five  lectures. 

7.  There  is  no  authority  competent  to  release  us  from  the 
demands  of  a  comparative,  historico-genetic  study  of  Theology. 
All  Theology  thus  examined  is  seen  to  be  the  growth  of  the  relig¬ 
ious  receptiveness  of  mankind,  the  growth  of  the  God-consciousness. 
In  this  sense  alone  is  Christianity  an  evolution. 


4 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


Gentlemen  :  — 

If  the  crudities  which  may  appear  in  these  lectures 
were  due  solely  to  my  own  limitations  of  knowledge 
and  thought,  I  should  not  advert  to  them,  but,  with 
confidence  and  tranquillity,  leave  that  task  to  my 
critics.  There  is,  however,  a  defectiveness  due  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  days  in  which  we  live. 

1.  It  is  easy  to  call  any  age  a  transition  period, 
because  time  is  always  rushing  forward,  a  resistless 
current,  but  surely  it  is  plain  enough  to  any  observer 
that  in  an  especial  and  marked  way  this  age  is  a 
transition  period  in  Theology.  The  cuneiform  clay 
epistles  of  Tel-el-Amarna,  the  slabs  of  the  great  Baby¬ 
lonian  epic,  antiquities  of  the  Nile  and  Euphrates 
valleys,  the  critical  analysis  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
scriptures,  and  the  comparative  study  of  religions  are 
casting  upon  Theology  a  light  to  which  we  cannot 
and  ought  not  to  shut  our  eyes.  The  old  is  passing 
away,  and  behold,  all  things  are  becoming  new.  The 

meaning  of  the  higher  criticism  is  manifestly  the  re- 
• 

moving  of  those  things  that  are  shaken,  as  of  things 

5 


6 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


that  are  made,  that  those  things  which  cannot  be 
shaken  may  remain.  We  are  standing  in  the  bright¬ 
ness  of  the  early  sunrise  of  a  new  day  in  methods  of 
Theological  study,  and  these  methods  are  still  too 
new  to  escape  unripeness.  Enough  for  us  if  our  new 
forms  of  thought  have  a  reality,  have  a  vivid  and 
vivifying  force,  and  adjust  themselves  to  the  new 
shapes  which  the  problems  of  our  day  assume. 

Two  props  stay  my  mind  in  beginning  these  lec¬ 
tures,  assuring  me  that  it  is  worth  your  while  to  hear 
them,  and  my  while  to  give  them.  The  first  is  the 
substantial  truth  of  the  points  taken,  but  the  second, 
and  all-important  matter,  is  the  method  which  I  use. 
It  is  to  this  method  that  I  bespeak  your  especial 
attention. 

2.  In  order  to  point  out  the  importance  of  this 
method  in  the  study  of  Christian  doctrine,  let  me  pre¬ 
mise  an  illustration.  There  stands  to-day  in  the  city 
of  Constantinople  the  blasted,  blackened  stump  of  an 
ancient  pillar.  It  is  called  the  Burnt  Column,  and  it 
is  now  about  eighty  feet  high.  An  unknown  Byzan¬ 
tine  writer 1  in  the  reign  of  the  emperors  Arcadius 
and  Honorius,  tells  us  that  the  Emperor  Constantine 
the  Great  erected  this  porphyry  column  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  high.  He  wound  about  it  a  spiral  rib¬ 
bon  of  bas-relief  like  Trajan’s  Column.  He  brought 
from  Delphi  the  ancient  bronze  image  of  Apollo,  and 

1  Incertus  Scriptor ,  in  Orelli’s  edition  of  Hesy chius  Milesius, 
295. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


7 


on  the  pedestal  of  this  image  had  inscribed,  as  if  it 
were  a  portrait  statue  of  himself,  his  own  illustrious 
name.  To  the  top  of  this  column  was  then  elevated 
this  sacred  image  of  Apollo-Constantine,  and  to  make 
perfectly  clear  that  the  old  god  had  been  converted 
into  a  Christian  numen,  about  his  head  they  put  a 
nimbus  of  darting  rays  made  from  nails  of  the  true 
cross .  Underneath  the  foundation  of  this  porphyry 
column  were  placed  the  ancient  palladium  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  that  image  which  fell  down  from 
Heaven,  and  which  iEneas  through  so  many  tribula¬ 
tions  brought  from  Troy,  and  together  with  it  the 
twelve  baskets  of  the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  ! 

Strange  conglomeration,  apt  symbol  of  the  mass  of 
our  popular  religious  notions  and  Theology !  Chris¬ 
tian  and  heathen  elements  are  mingled  together ! 
The  task  of  the  Christian  student  in  Theology  is 
therefore  clearly  indicated.  He  must  try  the  oracles, 
whether  they  be  indeed  of  God. 

3.  How  came  about  this  mixture  of  foreign  ele¬ 
ments  with  Christian  Theology  ?  Consider  a  moment, 
and  it  will  be  clear  to  you.  The  extent  of  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  divine  truth  in  the  world  of  men  is  a  matter 
which  is  measured  by  revelation  and  receptiveness. 
Receptiveness  is  gradual,  growing,  or  progressive. 
The  divine  method  in  the  world  is  not  revolutionary, 
but  evolutionary.  The  Bible  is  a  record  of  the  pro¬ 
gressive  reception  of  divine  truth.  The  Gospel  grows 
into  men’s  minds  as  the  world  grows  old.  This 


8 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


condition  of  religious  knowledge  we  discover  at  the 
very  origins  of  Christianity.  The  teachings  of  Jesus 
were  not  fully  understood,  if  understood  at  all,  even 
by  His  most  sympathetic  disciples,  therefore  He  was 
accustomed  to  say,1  “  I  have  yet  many  things  to  say 
unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now.”  Even 
after  the  Pentecostal  enlightenment  the  apostles 
were  obviously  not  in  errant.  Witness  the  Cliiliastic 
expectations  of  the  epistle-writers 2  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  If  such  were  the  limitations  of  the  receptive¬ 
ness  of  the  teachers  whom  J esus  chose  to  deliver  His 
doctrine,  how  far  more  contracted  probably  were  those 
limitations  in  the  case  of  their  hearers. 

Several  causes  have  helped  to  an  imperfect  recep¬ 
tion  by  mankind  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  The  first 
is  its  rapid  spread.  It  is  estimated  that  there  were  at 
the  end  of  the  first  century  five  hundred  thousand 
Christians ;  at  the  end  of  the  second,  two  millions ;  and 
at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  from  seven  millions  to 
ten  millions.  When  we  reflect  how  ingrained  and 
slow  to  eradicate  are  the  habits  and  convictions  of  a 
lifetime,  yes,  of  the  lifetimes  of  the  generations  of 
our  ancestors,  inbred,  fixed,  and  generated  into  the 

1  St.  John  xiii.  7  ;  xvi.  12,  17  ;  St.  Mark  iv.  33. 

2  Weiss,  Biblical  Theology ,  I.  305  ff.  Jewish  Apocalyptic  lit¬ 
erature,  the  Books  of  Enoch,  Moses,  Isaiah,  Solomon,  etc.,  could 
not  but  have  been  known  to  Jesus  and  His  apostles.  There  are 
not  a  few  allusions  to  them  in  the  New  Testament,  and  some  quo¬ 
tations,  e.g.  Jude  14. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


9 


very  fibre  of  our  character,  is  it  wonderful  that  with 
all  their  sincerity,  many  of  those  early  converts  to 
the  religion  of  Christ  carried  over  into  Christianity 
the  notions  and  convictions  of  their  past  ?  It  was 
inevitable. 

Let  me  say,  however,  at  this  point,  in  order  to 
guard  while  passing,  that  Gibbon  did  not  in  his 
fifteenth  chapter  offer  this  conglomerateness  of  early 
Christian  doctrine  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  Church.  Should  the  difficulty  occur 
to  your  mind,  recollect  that  Montanism  had  all  the 
characteristics  pointed  out  by  Gibbon  and  this  adapt¬ 
ability  also,  and  yet  Montanism  was  not  a  success. 
Nevertheless  sound  still  are  Gibbon’s  words  of  caution  : 
“  The  great  law  of  impartiality  too  often  obliges  us 
to  reveal  the  imperfections  of  uninspired  teachers  and 
believers  of  the  Gospel :  and  to  a  careless  observer 
their  faults  may  seem  to  cast  a  shadow  on  the  faith 
which  they  professed.  But  the  scandal  of  the  pious 
Christian,  and  the  fallacious  triumph  of  the  infidel, 
should  cease  as  soon  as  they  recollect  not  only  by 
whom ,  but  likewise  to  whom ,  the  divine  revelation  was 
given.” 

The  artists  of  the  Christian  Catacombs  felt  no 
scruple  at  using  the  figure  of  Hermes,  of  Bacchus, 
of  Orpheus,  as  a  symbol  of  the  Saviour.  And  the 
ancient  custom  of  representing  a  labyrinth  upon  the 
pavement  was  continued  in  Christian  churches,  and 
suggested  the  devotion  of  the  Stations  of  the  Cross. 


10 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


No  one  can  with  an  impartial  mind  read  the  pages 
of  the  isapostolic  fathers,  and  not  discern  the  influence 
over  their  thought  of  pagan  terminology,  and  the 
persistence  in  their  unconscious  convictions  of  pagan 
folk-faith.  Then,  when  Constantine  became  a  quasi- 
Christian,  he  cursed  the  Church,  not  with  the  fabled 
“  Donation,”  but  with  an  imperial  favour  which  made 
it  fashionable  to  profess  the  Christian  religion.  Here 
again  was  a  cause  of  an  influx  of  many  pagan  ideas 
into  Christian  thought.  Not  at  once,  when  such  was 
the  stuff  out  of  which  Christians  were  made,  could 
the  old  pagan  idea  that  religion  consisted  in  the  right 
performance  of  ceremonies  be  done  away.  Hence 
arose  the  complexities  of  ritual  observance  in  the 
Church,  reaching  high-water  mark  in  the  monastic 
churches  of  Europe  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
finding  expression  in  the  works  of  Durandus,  Vin- 
centius  of  Beauvais,  Gavantus,  Buffaldi,  Martini,  and 
the  decisions  of  the  Sacred  Congregations  of  Rites ; 
in  short,  in  the  idea  of  religious  “  function.”  In 
western  Europe,  Karl  the  Great  determined  that  the 
Saxons  must  be  Christians.  When  the  Rhine  was 
frozen  over,  he  crossed,  and  forced  them  all  to  be 
baptised,  and  then  he  went  back  home.  The  next 
summer  the  Saxons  openly  returned  to  their  idols. 
The  next  winter  Karl  returned  and  made  them  all 
be  baptised  again ;  and  so  on,  year  after  year,  till  the 
Saxons  got  to  be  fixedly  Christians.1  Moreover,  this 

1  Annales  Petaviani,  Einhardi,  etc.,  in  Pertz’  Monumenta  Ger- 


mamca. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


11 


great  Christian  emperor  in  his  laws  allowed  monetary 
compensation  for  any  crime  except  that  of  evading 
Christian  baptism.  For  that  alone  the  absolute 
penalty  was  death.  How  far  do  you  think  those 
Saxons  entered  into  the  religion  of  Christ?  Read 
that  letter 1  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  where  he  advises 
the  missionaries  not  to  destroy  the  Saxon  rites  and 
Saxon  sanctuaries,  but  to  consecrate  them  to  a 
Christian  use  and  meaning.  In  this  way  the  pagan 
customs  of  Christmas  and  of  St.  John’s  day,  cor¬ 
responding  in  date  to  the  two  Saxon  solar  festivals, 
have  long  lingered  in  Christendom,  and  have  given 
rise  to  many  Christian  legends,  invented  to  account 
for  survivals  2  whose  true  origin  had  been  forgotten. 
What  wonder  that  Christians  have  retained  many  an 
idol  of  the  den  and  of  the  market !  If  even  the 
acute  mind  of  the  Greek  Christian  did  not  develop 
the  thought  of  the  eternal  birth  of  Christ,  before  the 
day  of  Origen3  from  whom  Athanasius  received  it, 
should  we  be  surprised  that  the  Nibeliingenlied, 
written  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  reveals 
Teutonic  Christendom  almost  unaffected  in  social  life 
and  personal  character  by  the  religion  of  Jesus? 

1  Epistolce  3.  Greg.  Pap.,  XI.  71. 

2  Picart,  Ceremonies  Beligeuses ,  Tome  9 ;  Hospinianus,  Be 
Origine  Progressu  Ceremoniis  et  Bitibus  Festorum,  etc. ;  Du  Cange, 
Glossarium ,  passim. 

3  Irenseus’  doctrine  of  the  dual  nature  of  Christ  was  gnostic  in 
form.  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte,  I.  51G  ;  Karl  Bartsch,  Einlei- 
tnng  d.  Nibelungenlied. 


12 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Again,  Christian  reception  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and  the  development  of  the  same,  were  modified  by 
the  clericalism  of  the  Church.  In  the  first  centuries 
of  our  era  clericalism  was  inevitable  from  the  very 
constitution  of  society.  In  all  ages,  clericalism  is 
a  passionate,  blind  protest  against  worldliness.  It 
resulted  then,  as  always,  from  that  antagonism  to  the 
world  which  from  the  beginning  arose  between  Chris¬ 
tendom  and  heathendom.  For  that  idyllic  “  Peace 
of  the  Church,”  where  the  noblest  ideals  of  heathen¬ 
dom  insensibly  merged  themselves  into  Christianity, 
as  Mr.  Pater  has  so  exquisitely  suggested  in  Marius 
the  Epicurean ,  if  ever  a  historic  fact  must  have  been 
limited  and  momentary,  a  lull  between  tempests. 
Never  can  reforming  ages  be  tolerant;  the  Church 
and  the  world  were  then  hostile.  There  could  be  no 
compromise,  no  recognition  of  half-truths,  no  general 
appreciation  in  the  Church  of  the  dignity  and  earnest¬ 
ness  of  the  old  culture.  Necessarily,  therefore,  ecclesi- 
asticism  arose,  as  phariseeism  and  the  caste  systems 
had  arisen  before  it,  and  it  went  about  moulding  The¬ 
ology  to  suit  its  purpose  ;  for  a  system  of  Theology, 
and  a  casuistry  with  copious  index,  it  must  have. 
Free  thought  is  its  foe.  At  the  demand  of  the  Church, 
the  Emperor  Justinian  closed  the  schools  of  Neopla¬ 
tonism.  Yet  St.  Justin  Martyr  had  reasoned  in  the 
new  school  of  Plato,  and  Origen  was  a  pupil  of  Am- 
monius  of  the  Bag.  Neoplatonism  has,  in  spite  of 
Justinian,  always  persisted  as  an  element  of  Christian 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


13 


Theology.  It  brought  Augustine  into  the  Church, 
and  helped  him  to  formulate  opinions  which  tin  ally 
generated  Calvin  and  Calvinistic  Protestantism.  Also, 
the  schools  of  Athens  closed,  Neoplatonism  travelled 
eastward  and  took  up  its  abode  in  the  tents  of  Shem. 
Having  allied  itself  with  Arabian  philosophy,  it  went 
in  that  guise  westward  as  far  as  to  Spain,  and  thence 
through  Averrhoes  and  Avicebron,1  gave  an  impulse 
to  Meister  Eckehart,  to  Tauler,  to  Henry  of  Suso,  to 
the  author  of  Theologia  Germanica ,  and  to  the  mys¬ 
tics  in  general  of  the  fourteenth  century,2  and  so 
helped  on  Protestantism  and  free  religious  thought  on 
the  Lutheran  side.  In  the  Roman  communion,  Car¬ 
dinal  Cusa  was  an  eminent  exponent  of  the  same 
tendency. 

4.  The  survival  of  early  ideas  is  one  of  the  most 
important  subjects  in  the  rational  study  of  Christian 
Theology.  Such  persistence  has  been  commonly 
ignored  by  Christian  teachers,  yet,  under  Christian 
name,  dress,  and  rite,  religious  ideas  of  primitive  cul¬ 
ture  often  obstinately  survive.  A  quaint  example  of 
this  was  given  me  by  a  clerical  friend,  who  for  a  few 
years  was  connected  with  our  Church  Mission  to  the 
Sioux  Indians  at  Yankton,  Dakota.  A  chapel  had 
been  built  there,  and  named  “  The  Holy  Comforter.” 
Notwithstanding  all  teachings,  catechism,  Bible  read¬ 
ings,  and  explanations,  it  was  found  that  the  common 

1  Ad.  Franck,  Etudes  Orientales,  367. 

2  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte ,  I.  93-110. 


I 


14  SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 

Indian  idea  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  that  of  an  indef¬ 
initely  large  and  warm  quilt, — comforter.  Wide 
reaching  in  past  ages  has  been  the  splendid  cultus  of 
fire,  at  least  among  the  Aryan  peoples;  from  the 
Vedas  with  Agni  of  the  holy  fire  to  the  Latin  Vesta 
of  the  household  hearth.  Among  the  Semites  were 
the  sacred  fire-menhirs  of  Moab,1  and  the  brazen  cres¬ 
sets2  which  Solomon  set  before  the  temple.  There 
was  the  fire  of  the  gods,  which  darts  from  heaven 
upon  the  Soma, 3  leaving  its  fruit  to  be  thereafter 
a  vehicle  of  the  divine  substance,  and  to  be  adored 
also  as  a  god  —  teste ,  hymns  of  the  Rig  Veda ; 
the  altar  flame  of  Manoah,4  which  became  a  messen¬ 
ger  to  God ;  and  the  fire  which,  coming  down  from 
heaven  upon  Solomon’s  altar,  afterwards  burned  per¬ 
petually,  and  remained  during  the  seventy  years  of 
Babylonish  captivity  unextinguished,  though  hidden 
in  a  pit  of  water.  Of  this  august  and  splendid  pagan¬ 
ism,  I  can  think  of  only  these  survivals  in  official 
Christianity  of  to-day :  the  descent  of  the  holy  fire  at 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem  on 
each  Good  Friday,  the  ceremony  of  obtaining  the  new 
or  Paschal  fire,  the  church  altars  blazing  with  lights, 
and  the  never-dying  flame  of  the  sanctuary  lamp. 

1  2  Sam.  xxiii.  20. 

2  W.  Robertson  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites ,  469. 

3  Hillebrandt,  Vedische  Mijtlwlogie .  Soma  und  Verwandte  Gotten, 
I.  117-266. 

4  Judges  xiii. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


15 


Let  me  give  another  instance  of  wliat  I  think  is  a 
survival  of  primitive  folk-faith.  Primitive  1  man  any¬ 
where  in  the  world  venerates  a  boulder,  a  great  rock, 
and  particularly  a  meteoric  stone.  Beside  such  a 
rock  as  he  has  selected  he  puts  offerings 2  of  fruit, 
meat,  oil,  and  wine,  and  then  kindles  a  fire  to  con¬ 
sume  them,  pouring  thereon  oil  and  distilled  liquor. 
To  this  custom  we  owe  the  standing  stones,  menhirs, 
scattered  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  Carnac  in  Brit¬ 
tany,  the  Syrian  menhirs,  the  Stonehenge,  and  finally 
the  obelisk  and  the  spire.  On  top  the  menhirs  a 
little  hollow  was  made,  to  receive  the  offerings  to  the 
stone-spirit.  This  is  the  earliest  form  of  an  altar. 
Nowadays  a  Mohammedan  gravestone  has  a  cup  sur¬ 
mounting  it  which  receives  offerings  of  food  to  the 
ghost  of  the  dead.  A  menhir  Joshua  set  up  ; 3  at  such 
a  great  stone  human  sacrifice  4  was  offered.  Samuel 
erected 5  a  menhir.  Religion,  which  is  always  con¬ 
servative,  long  tried  to  preserve  these  stones  uncut.6 
A  curious  religious  observance  came  to  be  related  to 
these  pillars.  In  front  of  the  mysterious  temple  of 
Dea  Syria,  on  the  site  of  the  old  Hittite  capitol  of 
Carchemish,  there  stood  two  lofty  towers,  or  obelisks, 
resembling  perhaps  our  Washington,  or  Bunker  Hill, 
monument.  To  the  summit  of  these  pillars  of  Dea 

1  By  primitive  man  I  do  not  mean  primeval  man. 

2  1  Kings  i.  9.  3  Josli.  xxiv.  26  ff. 

4  2  Sam.  xx.  8-10.  5  1  Sam.  vii.  11. 

6  Ex.  xx.  25  ;  Josh.  viii.  31  ;  Deut.  xxvii.  5.  Cf.  Ex.  iv.  25. 


16 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Syria  went  up  her  chosen  priests,  and  remained  there 
seven  days  in  communion  with  the  goddess.  Now  it  is 
a  matter  to  note  that  not  far  from  this  spot,  and  about 
four  hundred  years  afterwards,  St.  Simeon  ascended 
his  pillar,  and  there  remained  the  rest  of  his  life  rapt 
in  the  contemplation  of  God.  After  his  example 
came  thousands  of  stylites,  pillar-saints,  and  to  this 
day  single  columns  are  found  scattered  over  the 
Syrian  land.  It  was  a  menhir  that  Jacob  set  up, 
pouring  oil  upon  it,  and  legend  tells  us  how  this 
same  stone  had  been  originally  in  the  altar  which 
Adam  built  after  his  expulsion  from  Paradise.  Upon 
it  Abel  offered  his  sacrifice.  It  fell  into  ruin,  but 
after  the  deluge  was  rebuilt  by  Noah.  Again  it  fell 
into  ruin,  and  again  was  erected  by  Abraham.  Jacob 
gathered  the  scattered  stones  of  it  and  put  them 
under  his  head  for  a  pillow ;  by  a  miracle  these  stones 
were  melted  into  one.  By  the  Phoenicians  this  sacred 
stone  is  supposed  to  have  found  its  way  to  Spain  and 
thence  to  Ireland,  where  Conn  one  morning,  as  he 
was  going  up  Tara  Hill,  stepped  upon  it.  The  stone, 
as  the  legend  goes  on  to  say,  screamed,  and  out  came 
a  fairy  prince  who  revealed  to  Conn  the  future  of 
Ireland ;  hence  to  the  Irish  the  stone  was  known  as 
Lia  Fail,  —  the  stone  of  destiny.  Kings  were  crowned 
sitting  upon  it.  Thence  somehow  it  got  to  Scotland, 
because  the  Stuarts  traced  their  line  to  Conn  of  Tara. 
At  present  this  stone  is  underneath  the  seat  of  the 
coronation  chair  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


IT 


I  have  told  this  legend  in  brief,  because  it  admi¬ 
rably  illustrates  the  manner  in  which  Christian  people 
invented  myths  or  legends  to  account  for  customs 
whose  origin  they  had  forgotten.  In  the  Church, 
however,  the  chief  survival  of  stone-worship  is  de¬ 
tected  in  the  demand  for  a  stone  altar  duly  anointed 
and  consecrated,  or  at  least  a  stone  mensa,  or  slab, 
so  prepared,  and  laid  upon  the  altar  for  the  offering 
of  the  holy  sacrifice.  Another  reason  why  so  many 
eccentric  doctrines  entered  the  Western  Church  is 
that  Latin  Christianity  set  itself  to  the  organisation 
of  European  society,  somewhat  to  the  neglect  of 
Christian  thought.  The  Church  of  Rome,  agreeable 
to  the  conditions  of  her  early  environment,  became 
deeply  impressed  with  the  imperial  idea  of  govern¬ 
ment,  and  has  never  since  been  able  to  divest  herself 
of  the  conviction  that  universal  sovereignty  is  hers 
by  right. 

5.  In  any  adequate  study  of  theology  we  must  first 
of  all  examine  the  religious  opinions  which  were 
already  existent  in  the  mental  soil  when  the  seed  of 
Christian  doctrine  came  to  be  sown  broadcast  in  it. 
Thus  we  may  be  in  the  way  to  discover  what  early 
ideas  survived  in  those  nations  that  embraced  the 
Christian  profession.  The  correct  method  of  study¬ 
ing  Christian  theology  is  the  historic  and  compara¬ 
tive  ;  likewise,  the  right  method  of  studying  religions 
is  the  comparative  method.  Folk-faith,  the  faith  of 
the  common  people,  belongs  fundamentally  to  a  right 


18 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


study  of  Christian  Theology,  because  the  day  has 
surely  arrived  when  we  must  be  able  to  compare 
without  fear  Christianity  with  the  ethnic  religions, 
thereby  to  demonstrate  the  supreme  truth  and  unique 
divineness  of  the  Christian  religion.  We  need  this 
method  also  in  order  to  understand  the  dispensation 
of  God  to  all  His  children,  and,  lastly,  we  need  it  in 
order  that  in  our  missionary  teaching  the  true  and 
the  false  may  be  discreetly  sundered.  Therefore  the 
first  part  of  my  method  is  an  examination  of  the 
environment  into  which  Christianity  was  projected. 
In  this  examination  I  have,  for  the  present,  been 
obliged  to  neglect  two  important  factors  which 
should  be  calculated  in  any  complete  consideration 
of  the  reception  and  subsequent  development  of  the 
gospel  message  ;  namely,  Philosophy  and  Law.  Con¬ 
sideration  of  those  factors  would  extend  these  lectures 
beyond  practical  limits.  The  student  may,  however, 
be  referred  to  Hatch’s  and  Renan’s  Hibbert  Lec¬ 
tures,  to  Maine,  Ancient  Law ,  Harnack,  Dogmen- 
geschichte ,  Baur,  Die  Christliche  Gnosis,  Erdmann’s 
and  Scliwegler’s  Histories  of  Philosophy. 

The  next  point  is  to  determine,  as  far  as  possible, 
precisely  what  was  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
New  Testament  writers.  This  is  to  be  attempted  by 
means  of  an  unbiassed  Biblical  theology  and  exegesis. 
I  would  then  trace  the  development  of  the  seed  in 
the  traditional  theology  of  the  Church,  pointing  out 
from  time  to  time  some  modifications  of  dogma  which 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


19 


have  occurred  by  reason  of  surviving  folk-faith. 
This  should  finally  bring  us  to  a  true  state  of  the 
doctrine  as  it  exists  for  my  consciousness,  perhaps  also 
for  yours.  But  this  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  intel¬ 
lectual  speculation.  Life  is  making  imperious  de¬ 
mands  upon  theology  that  she  be  a  factor  as  well  as 
a  fact.  For  example,  the  monism  of  Lotze  and  the 
Christian  Scientists  confronts  us.  To  me  they  repre¬ 
sent  a  metaphysical  extreme  which  is  false.  It  is 
logical  enough  if  only  we  could  be  quite  confident 
that  a  Jevons’  syllogistic  machine  inside  the  skull 
works  unerringly  when  it  gets  at  conclusions  beyond 
the  gauge  of  consciousness.  When  ciphering  with 
infinities,  it  is  easy  to  make  mistakes.  Theology 
ought,  therefore,  to  stand  the  test  of  present  con¬ 
sciousness,  if  it  is  to  be  proven.  It  ought  to  answer 
to  the  actual  requisitions  of  life,  not  necessarily  to 
metaphysical  and  to  traditional  authority.  The  Vin¬ 
centian  canon  has  never  met  with  fulfilment  in  the 
whole  history  of  dogma,  unless,  perhaps,  with  the 
exception  of  that  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  It 
is  inept,  also,  to  try  to  force  an  exact  conformity  of 
the  lex  credendi  with  the  lex  orandi.  It  is  not  so 
attempted  in  the  Rituale  Romanum;  it  should  not  be 
in  a  Rituale  Anglicanum.  It  has  been  said  with  some 
truth  that  every  Roman  Catholic  becomes  a  solifidian 
Lutheran  before  he  dies.  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  is  not  a  body  of  divinity,  but  a  manual  of 
devotion.  It  is  a  mistake  to  turn  phraseology  of 


20 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


prayer  into  creeds  and  dogmas.  The  one  object 
before  us,  gentlemen,  is  the  salvation  of  souls,  the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel,  good  news.  Jesus  came 
not  to  propound  a  theory  of  things,  even  of  human 
nature,  but  to  save  a  world.  This,  says  the  author 
of  the  book  of  the  Acts,  He  began  to  do  before  His 
ascension;  this  work  of  salvation  He  continues  through 
His  followers.  Theology  has  always  forgotten  herself 
when  she  has  tried  to  construct  a  theory,  coherent 
and  logical  though  it  be,  and  to  substitute  it  for  real 
life  and  actual  character.  Metaphysical  consistency 
is  impossible.  God  is  too  great  for  my  brain.  I  am 
ambitious  to  be  neither  a  Calvinist  nor  an  Arminian. 
What  we  desire  is  that  which  is  true,  and  from  truth 
we  demand  no  countersign.  The  world  is  full  of 
antinomies  which  never  have  been  solved.  Both 
absolute  freedom  and  absolute  fate  are  reductiones  ad 
absurdum.  Nevertheless,  human  consciousness  hymns 
in  distinct  tones  the  high  laws  of  duty,  of  righteous¬ 
ness,  and  of  holy  love.  Strenuously,  therefore,  must 
we  strive  to  set  forth  the  principles  of  Christ’s  teach¬ 
ing,  and  of  the  developed  ideas  of  the  gospel  in  such 
a  manner  that  they  may  be  saving,  that  they  may  be 
ethical,  as  well  as  intellectual,  forces,  because  in  these 
last  days  “the  sober  majesties  of  settled,  sweet, 
epicurean  life  ”  are  detected  as  a  false  element  in 
Christianity. 

6.  For  your  convenience  I  have  chosen  the  theo¬ 
logical  articles  of  the  Creed  to  which  to  apply  the 


THE  INTRODUCTION. 


21 


method  of  the  theological  study  that  I  have  so  ear¬ 
nestly  recommended.  What  I  wish  to  make  clear 
may  be  stated  somewhat  as  follows  :  — 

A.  God  is  not  dependent  upon  revelation,  but  reve¬ 

lation  upon  God. 

B.  The  Church  of  the  living  God  is  a  living  Church. 

C.  Forgiveness  of  sins,  and  not  of  their  results  alone, 

is  God’s  forgiveness. 

D.  The  rise  from  the  dead,  which  is  of  Christian 

teaching,  is  not  a  resuscitation  nor  a  revivifi¬ 
cation,  but  a  resurrection. 

E.  Eternal  life  is  potentially  a  present  fact,  and  we 

have  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  be  a  fut¬ 
ure  fact  unless  it  shall  have  been  previously 
of  this  present  world. 

I  desire  the  teachings  of  these  lectures  to  be  con¬ 
sidered  by  you  in  their  ethical  rather  than  in  their 
speculative  outcome.  If  you  cannot  see  their  saving 
value,  reject  them.  Let  us  not,  at  all  events,  sit  idly 
with  Diirer’s  Melancholia,  pondering  in  pessimistic 
dejection,  while  the  night  cometh,  wherein  no  man 
can  work.  Study  Theology,  not  to  make  your  pulpit 
a  professor’s  chair,  but  that  you  may  be  a  true  teacher. 
Heed  not  those  who  in  these  days  are  saying  that  the 
study  of  Theology  is  useless.  The  foundation  of 
a  house  may  remain  hidden  from  sight,  and  yet  be 
none  the  less  necessary  for  the  superstructure.  Let 
your  Theology  be  the  foundation  of  your  Sociology. 


90 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Study  Theology,  and  that  seriously,  not  that  you  may 
bolster  up  an  opinion,  or  defend  an  accepted  notion, 
or  persist  in  being  impervious  to  all  new  ideas,  but 
study  to  find  the  truth :  to  systematise  somewhat 
correlated  truths  in  order  that  you  may  observe  their 
bearing  one  upon  another,  but  especially  that  }^ou  may 
know  how  to  console  the  grieving,  strengthen  the 
weak  and  faint,  answer  the  questioner,  and  furnish 
genuine  and  healthful  moral  impulses.  Let  us  be 
heedful  not  to  incur  the  reproach  that, 

“  We  teach  and  teach, 

Until  like  droning  pedagogues  we  lose 

The  thought  that  what  we  teach  has  higher  ends 

Than  being  taught  and  learned.” 

At  this  time  of  the  world  no  longer  can  any  new  ideas 
be  brought  forward.  This  the  student  of  the  history 
of  religious  opinion  knows.  Neither  shall  I  hope  to 
define  all  things  clearly.  If  such  is  what  constructive 
or  positive  teaching  signifies,  then  it  does  not  under¬ 
stand  itself.  That  age  which  can  definitely  plan  out 
a  “  Scheme  of  Salvation  ”  has  spoken  its  last  word. 
There  is  no  possibility  of  a  final  Theology.  Yet 
Theology  should  none  the  less  be  positive  and  up¬ 
building.  I  do  not  come  here  to  deny,  but  to  affirm, 
yet  not  at  all  to  deliver  myself  of  a  dogma.  All  that 
I  desire  to  emphasise  is  the  method  of  the  study  of 
doctrines  which  I  here  present,  and  illustrate  with 
such  an  array  of  facts  and  data  as  my  time,  my  space, 
and  my  limitations  allow. 


THE  INTRODUCTION.  23 

7.  I  know  that  there  is  a  craving  for  clearness,  for 
positive,  definite  teaching.  But,  gentlemen,  under¬ 
stand  well,  that  for  living  religious  teachers  this  is 
not  a  day  for  dogma.  When  a  religious  idea  becomes 
a  dogma,  it  is  because  that  idea  has  spent  its  force,  it 
is  no  longer  a  living  and  a  growing  thought.  If  any 
one  of  you  absolutely  must  have  a  neat  and  coherent 
system  of  Theology,  teres  atque  rotundus ,  an  irresist¬ 
ible  authority,  an  infallible  guide  that  he  cannot 
mistake,  whether  Church,  Bible,  Creed,  Reason,  Sac¬ 
raments,  or  Pope,  I  do  not  know  where  in  this  life  he 
can  find  them.  The  boasted  infallibility  of  each  has  in 
its  turn  yielded  to  the  stress  of  life’s  demands.  No, 
divine  realities  cannot  be  brought  under  the  rule  of 
three  or  under  the  regimen  of  Aristotle’s  categories, 
as  the  Council  of  Trent  brought  the  dogma  of  justifi¬ 
cation.  Whenever  this  has  been  attempted,  one  of 
two  results  has  come  to  pass :  either  we  are,  as  by 
Rome,  asked  to  believe  the  incredible,  or  as  by  Geneva, 
what,  though  credible,  ought  never  to  be  believed. 
In  Theology  there  is  no  short  and  easy  way,  no  cut 
and  dried  truth.  All  truth  is  from  a  living,  self- 
revealing  God,  to  a  living,  growing  humanity. 

“  But,  more  than  man,  God  yet  is  perfect  Man, 

And,  making  men,  said,  ‘  Let  us  fashion  them 
In  Our  own  Image.’ 

He,  since  time  began, 

Has  been  the  Soul  of  man’s  soul,  manhood’s  Sire, 

Of  all  humanity  the  Light  and  Fire, 

Passing  imagination  and  desire, 


24 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Kindling  each  spark 

Of  vital  will  that’s  flashed  upon  the  dark 
Of  this  world’s  night,  and  ever  blazing  still 

With  a  fierce  purity  of  Love  that  will 
Consume  all  evil,  offering  up  love’s  pain 
On  the  great  altar  where  men’s  sins  are  slain.” 

So  the  apprehension  of  the  truth  is  a  progress  and 
a  development ;  for  lo,  God  is  with  men  unto  the  con¬ 
summation  of  Time,  ecu?  r%  awreXeias  rod  alcovo ?. 
Therefore,  “the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with 
the  process  of  the  suns  ”  ;  in  this  sense  alone  is  it  true 
that  Christianity  is  an  evolution. 


* 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


God  bears  Himself  out  of  Himself  into  Himself  ;  the  more  perfect 
the  birth,  the  more  is  born.  I  say,  God  is  at  all  times  one.  He 
takes  cognition  of  nothing  beyond  Himself.  Yet  God  in  taking 
cognition  of  Himself  must  take  cognition  of  all  creatures. 

Meister  Eckeiiart,  Pfeiffer,  Deutsche  Mystiker ,  II.  254. 

Deus  est  in  Rebus,  sicut  continens  res. 

S.  Thom.  Aq.,  Summa  Theol .,  I.  la.  1.  8. 

In  tutte  parti  impera,  e  quivi  regge, 

Quivi  e  la  sua  citta,  e  1’  alto  seggio. 

Dante,  Inferno ,  I.  127. 

Raise  thyself  to  the  height  of  religion,  and  all  veils  are  removed  ; 
the  world  and  its  dead  principle  pass  away  from  thee,  the  very 
Godhead  enters  thee  anew  in  its  first  and  original  form,  as  Life, 
as  thine  own  life  which  thou  shalt  and  oughtest  to  live. 

Fichte,  Anweisung. 

The  conception  of  sin,  it  is  sometimes  said,  is  at  the  root  of 
Christianity.  That  is  a  false  statement  of  a  truth.  For  sin  only 
becomes  sin,  and  is  only  known  to  us  as  sin ,  in  the  light  of  that 
which  is  the  heart  and  centre  of  Christianity,  the  belief  in  a 
Personal  God,  Who  is  a  God  of  Infinite  Love.  All  other  truths  of 
Christianity  grow  out  of  and  gather  around  that  central  truth  — the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  safeguards  the  eternal  truth  that  God 
is  Love. 

Aubrey  L.  Moore,  From  Advent  to  Advent. 


26 


Was  war’  ein  Gott,  der  nur  von  aussen  stiesse, 

Im  Kreis  das  All  am  Finger  laufen  liesse  ! 

Im  ziemt’s,  die  Welt  im  Innern  zn  bewegen, 

Natur  in  Sich,  Sich  in  Natur  zu  liegen, 

So  dass,  was  in  Ihm  lebt  und  webt  und  ist, 

Nie  Seine  Kraft,  nie  Seinen  Geist  vermisst. 

Goethe. 

For  so  the  light  of  the  world  in  the  morning  of  the  Creation  was 
spread  abroad  like  a  curtain,  and  dwelt  no  where,  but  filled  the 
expansum  with  a  dissemination  great  as  the  unfoldings  of  the  air’s 
looser  garment,  or  the  wilder  fringes  of  the  fire,  without  knots,  or 
order,  or  combination  ;  but  God  gathered  the  beams  in  His  hand, 
and  united  them  into  a  globe  of  fire,  and  all  the  light  of  the  world 
became  the  body  of  the  sun,  and  he  lent  some  to  his  weaker  sister 
that  walks  in  the  night,  and  guides  a  traveler  and  teaches  him  to 
distinguish  a  house  from  a  river,  or  a  rock  from  plain  field ;  so  is 
the  mercy  of  God  ;  a  vast  expansum  and  a  huge  Ocean,  from  eternall 
ages  it  dwelt  round  about  the  throne  of  God,  and  it  filled  all  that 
infinite  distance  and  space,  that  hath  no  measures  but  the  will  of 
God.  And  the  mercy  which  dwelt  in  an  infinite  circle,  became 
confirm’d  to  a  little  ring  and  dwelt  here  below,  and  here  shall  dwell 
below,  till  it  hath  carried  all  God’s  portion  up  to  Heaven,  where  it 
shall  reigne  and  glory  upon  our  crowned  heads  for  ever  and  ever. 

Bp.  Jeremy  Taylor,  Sermon,  The  Miracles 
of  the  Divine  Mercy.  Works,  II.  314. 


27 


SYNOPSIS. 


Introduction  : 

I.  —  1.  The  Idea  of  God  is  innate  in  its  form,  but  not  in 
content. 

2.  Its  Content  determines  the  character  of  Theology  and 
of  Religion. 

8.  Evolution  in  folk-faith  of  the  content  of  the  Idea 
of  God. 

Comparative  Religion  : 

a.  In  the  Animistic  stage. 

b.  In  the  Fetishistic  and  Shamanistic. 

c.  The  Polytheistic. 

d.  Monotheism,  not  a  result  of  evolution  ;  in  its  bare 

form,  not  a  fixed  concept,  —  in  Islam,  Brahminism, 
Buddhism,  Judaism,  Modern  Deism,  .  .  .  nor  is 

e.  Pantheism,  a  fixed  concept  of  God  in  ancient  and  in 

modern  times. 

Biblical  Theology  : 

II.  —  The  Revelation  of  the  true  content  of  the  Idea  of  God  is 
in  and  by  Jesus  Christ. 

a.  Neither  Jesus  nor  His  religion  a  result  of  evolution. 

b.  Jesus,  Himself,  the  Revelation  of  the  Unseen  God. 

c.  God  thus  revealed  as  essential  Love. 

d.  The  identity  of  Love,  Sacrifice,  and  Life  in  God. 

e.  This  obscured  by  survivals  of  folk-faith, 

/.  Which  have  given  rise  to  Sectarianism, 

g.  And  itself  has  arisen  through  various  degrees  of 

receptiveness  ; 

h.  Yet  receptiveness  is  the  condition  of  the  endless 

progress  of  man,  and  is  conditioned  by  personal 
righteousness. 

i.  This  implies  that  humanity  is  a  medium  of  revelation 

of  the  Unseen  God, 


28 


r* 


j.  Who  is  immanent,  explicitly, 

k.  According  to  the  New  Testament  Theology 

of  St.  John, 
of  St.  Paul, 

l.  And  implicitly,  according  to  Old  Testament  Theology. 
Traditional  Theology  : 

III.  — Survivals  of  Folk-faitli  in  development  of  the  revealed 

Idea  of  God. 

a.  The  tardy  reception  of  the  Idea  of  the  Trinity, 

b.  Which  nevertheless  is  rationally  true, 

c.  As  is  also  the  traditional  Theology  of  the  personality 

of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

cl.  The  rational  Theology  of  God  as  Immanent  is  not 
wholly  without  traditional  testimony  ; 
e.  But  survivals  from  Folk-faith  have  hindered  the 
general  acceptance  of  this  truth. 

IV.  —  The  practical  import  of  the  true  Idea  of  God  as  the 

Immanent  Triune. 

29 


r 

■T 


’ 


N 


THE  IDEA  OE  GOD. 


Gentlemen  :  — 

God  and  Life  in  the  world  are  final  facts.  Between 
the  two,  as  between  a  dark  dome  of  skies  above, 
pierced  with  palpitating  points  of  vivid  light,  and 
below,  an  ocean  fathomless,  inscrutable,  sails  that 
conscious  entity  we  call  the  soul.  The  soul  frames  no 
syllogism  to  prove  that  sea  and  sky  exist :  not  with 
the  assertion  “  God  is,”  does  the  Bible  begin.  Of  the 
existence  of  God  it  spreads  out  no  formal  proofs,  on¬ 
tological,  psychological,  cosmological,  or  teleological. 
God  is.  This  the  Holy  Writings  assume  as  the 
foundation  of  all  else.  The  starting-point  of  Revela¬ 
tion  is  the  infinite  and  eternal  I  AM.  Before  Revela¬ 
tion  is  He  who  reveals. 

I.  1.  Not  with  the  Idea  of  God  to  acquire  does 
humanity  begin  life  in  the  sphere  of  time. 

“  Dwelt  no  power  divine  within  us, 

How  could  God’s  divineness  win  us  ?  ”  1 

1  War'1  nicht  das  Auge  sonnenliaft, 

Wie  konnten  voir  zur  Sonne  blicken ? 

War ’  nicht  in  uns  des  Gottes  eigne  Kraft , 

Wie  konnt  uns  Gottliches  entzucken? 

Ol 
ol 


Goethe. 


32 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


By  nature  man  is  possessed  of  the  Idea  of  God,  by 
intuition  and  observation  it  is  developed;  for  man  is 
in  the  image  of  God.  We  sons  of  few  days  are  not 
forced  by  searching  to  find  out  God.  Not  with  the 
lens,  not  with  problem,  must  we  needs  go  up  to  the 
heights  of  the  flaming  suns  and  whirling  stars,  nor 
with  deep-sea  dredgings  and  with  inspection  of  eozoic 
strata,  down  to  the  deep  places  of  the  earth,  neither 
need  we  cross  the  ocean  of  Time  and  Space  to  some 
primeval  truth  unveiled  for  a  brief  season  in  the  dawn 
of  the  years,  somewhere  in  the  mystic  morning-land. 
The  word  is  very  nigh  unto  us,  even  in  our  heart  and 
in  our  mouth. 

The  Idea  of  God  is  innate.1  Not  an  abstract  gen¬ 
eralisation  of  the  perfections  of  the  world,  for  we 
have  no  notions  of  partial  perfection,  save  as  we 
derive  them  from  an  absolute  Perfection ;  not  a  con¬ 
cept  of  what  is  contrary  to  the  evil  existence,  for  the 
contrary  of  that  which  is  must  be  that  which  is  not. 
If  the  Idea  of  God  be  ours  by  immediate  perception 
or  by  intuition,  why  is  not  it  unvarying  and  invari¬ 
able  like  mathematical  actions  ?  This  question  does 
not  follow.  My  life  is  to  me  a  matter  of  immediate 
perception,  and  yet  I  cannot  express  it  by,  say, 

1  Bishop  Beveridge,  Sermon,  Omnipresence  of  God  the  Best  Safe¬ 
guard  against  Sin.  Works,  V.  89.  Were  there  not  danger  of  mis¬ 
construction  I  should  boldly  state  after  Thomassin,  Dogmatum 
Theologicorum ,  de  Deo ,  I.  1,  1,  that  this  innate  idea  is  really  God 
Himself  immanent  in  the  soul  and  present  to  consciousness. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


33 


cos  a  =  cos  b  cos  <?  +  sin  b  sin  c  cos  A.  The  idea  is  vari¬ 
ant  because  it  is  a  thought  form,  which  is  filled  in, 
informed,  and  develops  by  means  of  observation, 
intuition,  personal  righteousness,  and  revelation. 
Truth  flourishes  out  of  the  earth,  and  righteousness 
looks  down  from  Heaven.  The  pure  in  heart,  said 
Jesus,  are  in  Heaven  and  behold  God.  The  growth 
or  evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God  is  conditioned  by  the 
revelation  of  God,  the  receptiveness  of  man. 

“Man  knows  partly,  but  conceives  beside, 

Creeps  ever  on  from  fancies  to  tlie  fact, 

And  in  this  striving,  this  converting  air 
Into  a  solid,  he  may  grasp  and  use, 

Finds  progress.” 

2.  I  begin  what  I  have  to  say  with  some  words 
about  the  Idea  of  God,  because  that  Idea  is  the  key¬ 
note  of  all  Theology.  To  begin  with  Sin,  or  with 
the  Church,  or  with  the  Incarnation,  or  with  the 
Atonement,  or  with  the  Eucharist,  is  to  pull  out  a 
strand  from  the  middle,  and  to  tangle  the  skein  of 
theologic  order.  Not  without  significance  do  Bible 
and  Creed  begin  with  God  Who  is  the  Origin  and 
Beginning  of  all.  The  Idea  of  God,  in  its  content,  is 
absolutely  the  article  by  which  the  Church  stands  or 
falls,  because  in  that  Idea  is  all  Theology  implied, 
and  by  it  the  explicit  doctrines  are  shaped  and 
coloured. 

3.  In  order  to  account  for  some  singular  religious 
notions  that  alloy  the  teachings  of  Christ,  as  they  are 


34 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


sometimes  delivered  in  the  temples  and  market-places 
in  this  nineteenth  century  of  salvation,  I  ask  you 
to  turn  your  attention  to  divergent  developments 
of  the  universal  Idea  of  God. 

a .  In  a  primitive  state,  man  feels  that  the  world 
is  alive.1  He  may  be  able,  it  is  true,  to  distinguish 
between  his  own  life  and  that  of  tree  and  horse,  but 
in  fact  he  does  not  always  do  so.  For  him  there  is 
present  in  all  things  a  mysterious  living  force,  imper¬ 
sonal,  perhaps,  but  sentient.  For  the  more  part  he 
suspects  that  the  river,  the  tree,  and  the  sun  have 
life  as  he  has,  a  soul  like  his  own,  claiming  of  his 
dim  intelligence  some  sort  of  recognition  and  service. 
His 


“  Untutor’d  mind 

Sees  God  in  clouds  or  hears  Him  in  the  wind.” 


With  the  spirit  of  the  water-flood  and  of  the  oak 
tree  he  shares  what  most  he  values,  food  and  drink, 
clothing  and  fire.  He  sets  a  calabash  of  wine  at 
the  foot  of  the  tree,  and  oil  and  maize  he  sprinkles 
on  the  surface  of  the  river.  From  this  stag-e  of 

o 

thought  to  the  vow  of  Jeptha  and  the  sacrifice  of 
Iphigenia  by  the  seaside,  the  way  is  long,  but  the  idea 
which  developed  is  one.  To  primitive  man  it  seems 
that  if  he  should  shoot  an  arrow  up  into  the  sky, 


1  I  pass  over  the  theory  of  the  concept  of  luck  as  the  precedent 
of  the  concept  of  the  supernal.  This  notion  has  after  a  fashion 
been  worked  out  in  The  Supernatural,  Its  Origin ,  Nature,  and 
Evolution,  by  John  S.  King,  2  vols.,  1892. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


35 


i 


some  drops  of  blood  would  fall ;  if  he  tear  up  by 
the  root  a  mandragora,  or  any  other  plant,  it  will 

j 

groan  in  pain.  Should  he,  like  Midas,  whisper  his  f 

secret  to  the  river,  the  reeds  will  blab.  The  Kaffir 
and  the  North  American  Indian  understand  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  birds  and  beasts,1  but  other  less  fortunate  folk 
must  drink  the  blood  of  a  Fafnir,  or  possess  Solomon’s 
pentagraph  seal.  With  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  the 
child-man  loves  his  “  Sir  brother,  the  sun,”  Messer  lo 
frate  sole ,  and  praises  God  for  “  his  sister  the  moon,” 
and  is  wont  to  preach  to  the  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes. 

Like  the  Wandering  Jew  in  Dore’s  famous  pictures, 
the  world  about  him  is  alive,  sentient,  intelligent,  and. 
sympathetic  or  antipathetic,  look  where  he  will,  on 
rock,  tree,  and  grass  blades.  Every  plant  is  a  sen¬ 
sitive  plant.  This  sentiment  revives  in  some  of  our 
best  poetry,  Wordsworth’s  Rhyme  of  Peter  Bell ,  Cole¬ 
ridge’s  Ancient  Mariner ,  Shelley’s  Sensitive  Plant, 
and  Swinburne’s  Forsaken  Qarden.  The  idea  is 
pretty  in  poetry,  but  makes  mischief  in  Theology. 

This  stage  of  God-consciousness  has  been  called 
Animism. 

At  this  point  of  the  growth  of  the  Idea  of  God, 
man  does  not  yet  dream  of  the  great  Spirit  as  able  to 
exist  apart  from  the  world,  or  without  food  and  drink. 

The  great  Spirit  is  never  absent,  being,  so  to  say, 
adscriptus  glebce,  but,  as  the  soul  of  the  world,  he  may, 

1  Kaffir  Folk  Lore ,  by  G.  M.  Thel,  passim ;  Reports  U.  S.  Bu¬ 
reau  of  Ethnology.  % 


i 


36 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


conceivably,  fall  asleep.  If  offended,  he  curses  the 
ground,  and  it  becomes  stony  ;  briars  and  nettles  grow, 
the  sun  scorches,  the  wind  flagellates,  and,  as  an 
extreme,  the  thunder-bolt  smites  dead.  Now  what 
straightway  occurs  to  the  simple  mind  is  to  keep  the 
Spirit  in  a  good  humour  by  giving  him  the  best  to  eat 
and  drink.  Out  of  this  thought  develops  the  custom 
of  sacrifice.  The  Levitical  code  nowhere  explains  the 
significance  of  sacrifice,  but  its  symbolism,  both  in  the 
priestly  code  and  in  the  rest  of  the  Old  Testament,  is 
clearly  founded  upon  the  notion  of  a  gift  of  food  and 
drink,  mincha  and  nesek.  The  blood,  wherein  is  the 
life,  was  especially  due  to  Jehovah.  Against  defraud¬ 
ing  the  altar  by  offerings  not  fit  for  food  the  later 
prophets  protest.1  Micali  assigns  even  to  Balaam  a 
doctrine  which  is  more  spiritual.2 

b.  The  Animistic  stage  of  primitive  culture  is  from 
its  very  character  not  permanent.  Men  come  to 
notice  distinctions,  and  consequently,  to  their  fancy, 
life  or  spirit  then  appears  to  ebb  away  from  water  and 
rock.  It  still  remains  in  beast  and  man.  So  the  great 
Spirit  is  moved  a  little  way  off  from  the  extremities 
of  the  nerve  fibres.  Nevertheless  at  any  occasion 
when  an  object  is  particularly  considered  it  may  be 
regarded  as  a  focus  of  the  spiritual  presence,  be  that 
object  a  man,  a  phial  of  oil,  an  image,  a  bone,  a  coat, 

1  Zech.  vii.  6  ;  Mai.  i.  7,  10 ;  Religion  of  the  Semites ,  by  W. 
Robertson  Smith,  Lect.  VI. ;  Wellliausen,  Prolegomena ,  c.  ii. 

2  Micah  vi.  6,  7. 


THE  IDEA  OE  GOD. 


37 


a  cup  of  blood  or  of  wine,  or  a  cake  of  bread.  This 
is  fetishism,  and  here  God  is  supposed  to  manifest 
Himself  by  chosen  men,  priests,  prophets,  and  kings, 
and  to  speak  through  them,  or  to  dwell  in  them,  giv¬ 
ing  them  peculiar  powers  of  consecration  so  that  they 
can  cause  Him  to  be  specially  present  in  a  stone,  or  a 
rag,  an  image,1  or  in  the  sacrificial  food.  Upon  such  a 
chosen  person  it  was  conceived  that  the  welfare  of 
the  people  depended,  for  he  was  the  tribe’s  represen¬ 
tative,2  the  vicar  of  the  god,  the  gentile-man,  forerun¬ 
ner  of  our  modern  gentleman.  Like  the  Dalai  Llama 
of  Lassa,  like  the  former  Mikado  of  Japan,  and  like 
the  Pope  in  his  Vatican,  these  divine  vicegerents 
must  live  in  seclusion.  Omne  ignotum  pro  mirijico. 
If  these  divinely  possessed  persons  turn  the  head 
incautiously,  misfortune  will  certainly  occur.  Their 
word  is  infallible ;  they  control  the  wind  and  the  rain  ; 
they  are  the  media  of  communication  between  the 
god  and  men.  They  have  a  twofold  power ;  they  pos¬ 
sess  the  two  swords,  and  u  sword  is  under  sword,”  as 
saith  the  Bull,  Unam  Sanctum. 

c.  This  mental  attitude  removes  still  farther  away 
the  great  Spirit  of  life ;  nevertheless  he  is  yet  sup¬ 
posed  to  dwell  in  chosen  objects,  images,  remote 
adyta  of  temples,  and  on  the  tops  of  high  mountains 
like  Meru,  Olympus,  Mauna  Loa,  and  Fuji.  Every 
race  has  its  sacred  mountain.  With  a  withdrawal  from 

1  Becords  of  the  Past ,  Second  Series,  III.  42,  43. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  I.  214. 


88 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  sense  of  near  presence,  the  concept  arising  from 
the  primitive,  vague  feeling  of  an  omnipresent  vital 
force  takes  upon  itself  human  traits  and  limitations, 
and  becomes  differentiated.  The  great  God  of  all  con¬ 
tinues  to  be  borne  in  memory,  but  as  afar  off  in  some 
dark  background,  where,  like  Brahm,  he  slumbers 
through  the  ages.  Gods  many  lord  it  over  the  races 
of  men.  The  sun,  each  star,  each  water  spring,  each 
domestic  hearth,  and  every  one  of  the  familiar  uses 
of  life  is  thought  to  have  its  resident  manes,  genius, 
djin,  god,  or  spirit.  Wine  has  its  indwelling  spirit, 
and  corn,  also,  for  people  of  this  stage  of  culture. 
Each  man,  too,  has  his  indwelling  manes,  or  genius, 
or  spirit,  as  Socrates  has  his  daimonion.  The  genius 
of  the  Roman  Emperor  became  the  protecting  spirit 
of  the  State.  Every  act  of  life,  every  moral  trait, 
every  conceivable  thing  and  combination  of  things, 
had  an  indwelling  spirit,  a  patron  god.  Ancient  Rome 
alone  had  sixty  thousand  gods,  and  no  Bollandists. 
Victor  Hugo  remarks,1  with  delicate  satire,  “  Singular 
is  the  parallelism  of  the  destinies  of  Rome  ;  after  a 
Senate  which  made  gods  comes  a  Conclave  which 
makes  saints.”  According  to  polytheistic  notions  of 
this  sort,  when  a  man  died,  his  manes  went  to  join 
the  gods,  and  therefore  deserved  divine  honours. 
Hence  arose  ancestor- worship  and  placation.  The 
next  step  in  the  evolution  was  the  cultus  of  the 
saints.  Another  notable  survival  of  manes  worship  is 


1  Pensees  Melees. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


39 


tlie  doctrine  of  immediate  sanctification  after  death. 
Were  we  to  trust  to  the  ordinary  epitaph,  we  must 
infer  that  the  article  of  death  is  plenary  absolution, 
viaticum,  sanctification,  and  canonisation,  all  in  one. 

As  Animism  had  its  truth,  in  that  it  perceived  the 
immanence  of  God,  so  Polytheism  had  truth,  and  that 
which  we  particularly  note  was  its  truth  that  God  is 
not  merely  some  subtle,  inexplicable,  pervasive  force, 
or  some  substance  which  is  impersonal,  but  that  He  is 
a  moral  person,  who  is  to  be  thought  of  as  possessing 
in  His  relation  with  Humanity  all  humane  qualities. 
Polytheism  is  a  forward-reaching  sense  of  the  Incar¬ 
nation.  However,  to  this  stage  of  religious  culture 
belongs  one  mischievous  influence  ;  namely,  the  notion 
of  God’s  wrath,  jealousy,  rigour,  and  avarice.  For 
in  Polytheism  men  think  the  gods  such  as  them¬ 
selves,  and  to  this  error  the  limitations  of  language 
have  contributed.  Thence  arose  the  customs  of  gifts 
to  the  gods  to  keep  them  in  good  humour,  of  votive 
offerings  or  bribes,  of  propitiations,  of  barter  and  eva¬ 
sion,  of  the  fear  of  the  vengeance  or  wrath  of  gods, 
here  and  hereafter,  which  might  be  escaped  by  cajol¬ 
ing  with  flattery  and  gift  the  supernal  powers.  In 
this  way  the  divine  potencies,  Grottes  eigene  Kraft ,  of 
man’s  sacred  sonship  became  frustrate,  and  life  in  re¬ 
ligion  took  the  form  of  an  ignoble  scramble  to  save 
self. 

; 

Only  slowly  has  the  world  outgrown  the  bondage 
of  these  crude  ideas.  Notwithstanding  our  Lord 


40 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


said,  “  He  who  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,”  some 
there  are  who  still  think  of  godliness  as  at  best  a 
means  of  placating  God  and  getting  something  from 
Him,  and  who  live  as  if  righteousness  consisted  chiefly, 
if  not  altogether,  in  avoiding  what  might  anger  God. 
If  any  man’s  receptiveness  in  these  last  days  is  so 
rudimentary  that  the  secret  of  Jesus’  deep  unselfish¬ 
ness  cannot  get  borne  in  upon  his  understanding, 
I  would  suggest  for  his  consideration  the  following 
stanzas  of  the  singularly  evangelical  hymn  of  St. 
Francois  Xavier:  — 

“  My  God,  I  love  Thee  —  not  because 
I  hope  for  heaven  thereby ; 

Nor  yet  because,  if  I  love  not 
I  must  forever  die. 


“  Then  why,  O  blessed  Jesus  Christ, 
Should  I  not  love  Thee  well  ? 

Not  for  the  hope  of  winning  heaven, 
Nor  of  escaping  hell; 


“  Not  with  the  hope  of  gaining  aught; 
Not  seeking  a  reward  ; 

But  as  Thyself  hast  loved  me, 

O  ever-loving  Lord ! 

“  E’en  so  I  love  Thee,  and  will  love, 
And  in  Thy  praise  will  sing ; 

Solely  because  Thou  art  my  God, 
And  my  eternal  King.” 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


41 


d.  When  a  truer  Idea  of  God  presented  itself  as 
it  did  to  Abraham,  the  first  Monotheist  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  it  gained  prevalence  slowly ;  hut  wherever 
it  did  obtain,  history  has  demonstrated  that  there 
was  invariably  a  superior  development,  both  ethical 
and  spiritual.  This  led  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  to  say 
that  the  Hebrews  had  a  genius  for  righteousness. 
That  Monotheism  was  not  solely  a  product  of  natural 
development,  the  study  of  comparative  religion  goes 
to  prove.  The  Folk-faith  of  the  Aryan  races,  not¬ 
withstanding  centuries  of  acute  and  profound  meta¬ 
physic  in  India,  never  developed  into  Monotheism. 
Outside  the  Abrahamic  tribes,  nowhere  was  the 
religion  of  the  Semites  permanently  a  pure  Mono¬ 
theism.  Even  Israel  hardly  reached  the  ideal  before 
500  b.c.  Till  Aryan  peoples  accepted  its  goodly 
heritage,  pure  Monotheism  had  seldom  been  estab¬ 
lished  in  a  stable  form.  Even  at  Sinai  the  Jews 
fell  away,  and  their  long  history  is  but  a  chronicle 
of  lapses  into  forms  of  Folk-faith.  Has  Islam  had  a 
cleaner  record?  No  sooner  had  the  breath  of  life 
left  the  body  of  Mahomet,1  than  a  desperate  effort 
was  made  to  fix  his  deathlessness  as  a  dogma  or  to 
canonise  him  as  a  god.  Although  for  the  moment 
this  was  averted,  yet,  says  Kuenen,2  Islam  degenerated 
in  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  the  Prophet  into 
saint  worship  and  pantheistic  Sufism.  Even  for  the 

1  Sir  William  Muir,  The  Caliphate ,  c.  i. 

2  Kuenen,  Hibbert  Lectures,  41  ff. 


42 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


rigidly  orthodox,  Mahomet  is  now  their  mediator, 
ever  pleading  with  Allah.  The  bare  monotheistic 
idea  of  God,  while  eliminating  from  religion  grosser 
notions  of  Animism,  Fetishism,  and  Polytheism,  ran 
to  the  opposite  error  of  reducing  God  to  remote  and 

A 

contrahuman  power,  El,  or  a  blind  will,  or  an  Etre 
Supreme ,  which  is  an  empty  abstraction,  or  worse,  — 
Le  bon  Dieu ,  an  easy,  indulgent  roi  d'Yvetot ,  exalted 
to  the  throne  of  the  Universe.  Or  He  remains  vested 
in  the  more  austere  and  terrific  traits  of  the  poly¬ 
theistic  idea,  and  these  crystallised  by  an  infinite 
power  and  a  holiness  which  must  not  be  questioned. 
Does  not  this  Idea  of  God  appear  to  be  that  of  the 
Genevan  school?  Is  God  a  law  unto  Himself  and 
unto  the  world?1  Not  only  in  the  long  reaches  of 
antiquity,  but  in  modern  times  bare  Monotheism  has 
again  and  again  traded  its  birthright  for  the  pottage 
of  agnosticism.  Brahminism  says  of  the  Supreme 
God  that  before  creation,  —  before  logically,  not  tem¬ 
porally, —  “before  creation  there  was  neither  entity 

1  Does  God  do  a  thing  because  it  is  right,  or  is  it  right  because 
He  does  it?  The  latter  term  of  the  dilemma  obviously  implies 
that  He  is  arbitrary  and  non-moral,  that  in  Him  might  is  right ; 
on  the  other  hand  we  should  be  forced  to  admit  that  there  is  some¬ 
thing  outside  God,  right  external  to  Him,  conditioning  His  existence 
and  determining  His  acts.  This  was  the  dilemma  of  the  ancient 
Monotheist,  which  modern  philosophy  solves,  by  pointing  out  that 
right  is  not  hypostatic,  that  it  has  no  substance  save  in  the  mind  of 
the  divine  Being.  This  reconciles  the  antinomies  by  uniting  them, 
and  the  former  is  left  as  a  statement  to  be  used. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


48 


nor  non-entity.”  Buddhism  of  to-day  theoretically 
finds  that  infinite  perfection  is  realised  in  total  ex¬ 
tinction  of  individual  thought  and  volition.  Jewish 
rationalism  in  the  book  Zoliar  attained  in  the  middle 
ages  to  the  idea  of  God  as  En,  nothing.1  The  Persian 
Sufis  teach  to-day  that  God  is  unlimited  naught. 
Spinoza’s  definition  of  God  as  Substance  is  virtually 
a  negation.  In  Germany  since  the  Aufklarung,  in 
England  since  Deism,  and  in  France  since  the  Voltai¬ 
rian  cycle,  the  fruit  of  those  gospels  of  naked  Mono¬ 
theism  has  visibly  ripened  into  Agnosticism  and 
Nihilism.  John  Milton,  in  bitter  blindness  of  soul 
and  body,  developed  Calvinistic  Monotheism  to  its 
logical  result,  Deism,  and  ceased  to  attend  any  house 
of  Christian  worship.  After  two  centuries  other  men 
have  reached  Milton’s  conclusions,  and  we  are  able 
to  see  that  the  Idea  of  God  as  a  single  person  —  for 
that  is  what  I  mean  in  this  place  by  bare  Monotheism  — 
neutralises  or  negates  itself  in  the  processes  of  the 
human  intellect.  Plato  is  justified  in  saying  that 
the  absolute  Unit  is  unthinkable ;  and  with  this  asser¬ 
tion  Sts.  Basil  and  Gregory  Nazianzen  agree.2 

e.  A  further  form  of  the  divine  Idea,  which  arises 
in  human  consciousness  out  of  the  ancient  Animism, 
will  forever  remain  a  fascination  to  the  poet  and  to 

1  Ad.  Franck,  La  Kabbale ,  142  ;  S.  L.  M.  Mathers,  Kabbalah 
Unveiled ,  1G  ff.  ;  D’Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale. 

2  Apol.  ad  Ccesarianos,  G19,  c. 


44 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  mystic.  In  its  more  spiritual  aspect  the  Idea  has 
been  nobly  expressed  in  our  own  day  :  — 

“  The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and  the  plains  — 

Are  not  these,  O  Soul,  the  vision  of  Him  who  reigns  ? 

Earth,  these  solid  stars,  this  weight  of  body  and  limb, 

Are  they  not  sign  and  symbol  of  thy  division  from  Him? 

Glory  about  thee,  without  thee ;  and  thou  fiddliest  thy  doom, 

Making  Him  broken  gleams  and  a  stifled  splendour  and  gloom. 

Speak  to  Him  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit  can 
meet  — 

Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet.” 

There  belongs  to  the  doctrine  of  God  as  the  One  and 
the  All,  to  *Ev  real  to  Ild^,  a  wealth  of  bravely  beauti¬ 
ful  suggestions  ;  the  opulence  of  the  Oriental  life  with 
its  ecstatic  reveries,  and  the  clear  flame  of  Greek 
philosophy  which  burnt  through  the  intensity  of  Neo¬ 
platonism  into  the  “ divine  dark”  of  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Pantheism  always  goes  to  seed. 
The  degeneration  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  which 
originally  was  profoundly  Pantheistic,  might  be  taken 
as  a  clear  type  of  the  development  and  decay  of  the 
Pantheistic  Idea  of  God.  That  development  is  thus 
summarised :  — 

1.  God  is  conceived  to  be  the  God  of  Nature  ;  then 

2.  God  is  thought  of  as  in  Nature ;  then 

3.  Nature  is  regarded  as  God  ;  then 

4.  It  is  concluded  there  is  no  God,  only  Nature.1 


1  See  Renouf,  Hibbert  Lectures. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


45 


It  seems  probable  that  the  Idea  of  God  went 
through  the  same  historical  process  among  the  Sum- 
mero-Akkadians  and  their  Semitic  successors  the 
Chaldeans.  Indeed,  among  every  Pantheistic  people 
this  seems  always  to  be  the  process,  and  in  the  Ger¬ 
man  philosophy  of  our  day  from  Schelling  to  Yon 
Hartmann,  it  has  been  repeated.  Nevertheless  the 
truth  of  Pantheism  remains  —  God  is  in  His  world. 

“  The  One  Spirit’s  plastic  stress 
Sweeps  through  the  dull,  dense  world  ;  compelling  there 
All  new  succession  to  the  forms  they  wear ; 

Torturing  the  unwilling  dross  that  checks  its  flight, 

To  its  own  likeness,  as  each  mass  may  bear ; 

And  bursting  in  its  beauty  and  its  might 

From  trees  and  beasts  and  men  into  the  heaven’s  light.” 

I  think  that  in  these  lines  Shelley  is  reaching  out 
and  groping  after  God,  as  after  One  of  Whom  the 
cosmos  is  a  theophany. 

II.  a .  Different  from  all  these  theories,  different 
both  in  kind  and  degree,  is  the  manifestation  of  God 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Absurd  is  the  conjecture  of  Renan, 
that  Jesus,  a  child  of  the  people,  could  construct  an 
eclectic  system  out  of  all  the  theories  of  the  world.1 
That  should  be  sought  at  the  hand  of  the  sages  of  the 
Serapeum  of  Alexandria,  or  of  the  dilettante  period 
of  imperial  Rome,  and  not  from  a  peasant  of  Palestine. 
For  one  in  the  rugged  stretches  of  Galilee,  where  the 


1  Vie  de  Jesus ,  cc.  1,  2. 


46 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ribs  of  the  earth  are  bare,  and  anathema  is  laid  upon 
the  man  who  keeps  swine  and  teaches  his  son  Greek, 
small  is  the  opportunity  to  combine  Mosaism  and 
Hellenism1  in  order  to  make  a  new  religion. 

b.  Free  yourselves  forever  from  the  notion  that 
Jesus  was  a  doctrinaire ,  and  that  Christianity  is  a  lit¬ 
erary  religion,  a  set  of  final  opinions  about  truth,2 
and  life.3 4  The  heart  of  the  Christian  religion  is  the 
fact  of  a  particular  personal  life.  When  Philip  said 
unto  Jesus,  u  Lord,  show  us  the  Father,”  the  answer 
came  straightway,4  u  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with 
you,  and  yet  thou  hast  not  known  me,  Philip?  He 
that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father.”  When  our 
Lord  standing  before  Pilate  was  asked,  u  What  is 
truth?”  He  replied  not  in  words,  because  He  was 
the  answer  in  fact.  The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  gathers  into  one  statement  the  whole  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  Incarnation,  relative  to  ethnic  religions 
and  Folk-faith,  when  he  begins  his  homily  with  say¬ 
ing,  “God  having  in  so  many  fragments  and  many 
fashions5  formerly  spoken  in  prophets  to  the  fore¬ 
fathers,  at  the  latest  of  these  days  has  spoken  to  us 
in  His  Son.” 

1  Keim,  Jesus  of  Nazara ,  VI.  426 ;  M.  Arnold,  Culture  and 
Anarchy ,  c.  iv. 

2  aXrjdeia. 

3  7 r/)d£ets. 

4  St.  John  xiv.  9.  Cf.  v.  17-19,  26  ;  xii.  45  ;  xiii.  20. 

0  7 ro\v/u.epu>s  Kal  TroXvTpdTrcos,  Heb.  i.  1,  2. 


THE  IDEA  OE  GOD. 


47 


“And  so  the  Word  had  breath  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds, 

In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought.” 

The  Incarnation  was  a  revelation  and  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  the  nature  of  God.  Unique  is  that  revelation, 
where  truths  in  manhood  darkly  join,  deep  seated  in 
our  mystic  frame.  In  fervour  the  apostle  exclaims, 
“  Great  is  the  revealed  mystery  of  a  Holy  reverence 
Who  was  revealed  in  body,  rectified  in  spirit.”  1  This 
revealed  mystery  is  the  Logos,  the  Word  of  God, 
which  had  been  “concealed  before  the  ages  and  gen¬ 
erations,  but  was  in  the  present  shown  to  His  holy 
ones,  to  whom  the  Lord  willed  to  make  known  what, 
among  the  Gentiles,  is  the  wealth  of  the  glory  of  this 

mystery,  Who  is  Christ  among  you  the  hope  of 
”  2 

• 

c.  This  mystery  of  the  nature  and  being  of  God 
was  revealed  to  be  love.  Oh,  the  vastness  and 
depth  of  the  mystery  of  love !  For  what  is  love?  Is 
not  it  the  essential  action  of  out-yielding  self,  is  it 
not  fundamentally  self-outgoing  to  another  and  for 
another?  At  the  bottom  this  is  what  desire  is,  what 

1  p.kya  eariv  t6  tt) s  evaefieias  p-var-ppiov  ’  os  ecpavepdodr)  iv  aapul,  edi- 
KcuuOr)  ev  irvevp.aTi,  /c.r.X.,  1  Tim.  iii.  16.  Cf.  Cremer’s  Lex  ;  Winer, 
Greek  Gram.  N.  T.  736. 

2  t6  p.vGT'qpt.ov  t6  airoK€KpvpLp.tvov  airb  tCov  aiwvcov  icai  aird  tQv  yeveQv, 
vvv  8k  icpavepwd 77  rots  dylois  avrov,  oh  rjdkXrjcrev  6  Geos  yvaipLacu  tL 
TO  -irXoVTOS  Tt)s  do$jr)S  TOV  p.V(TT7]pioV  TOl/TOU,  K.T.X.,  Col.  i.  26  ff.  Cf. 

Liglitfoot,  Comm,  on  the  place. 


48 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


appetite  is,  what  life  is.  The  significance  of  the 
Word-made-Flesh  is  precisely  this,  the  manifestation 
of  God  as  love,  the  substance  and  law  of  the  Universe 
and  of  souls.  Of  this  the  world  itself  is  a  revealment, 
and  the  Nativity  of  Bethlehem  a  revelation.  The 
Incarnation  was  the  “Tear  of  Divine  Compassion,” 
the  supreme  manifestation  of  that  process  of  Divine 
Existence  which  shall  culminate  in  the  glory  of 
Christ  in  Humanity.  Strange  is  it  that  Lucretius,  in 
De  Naturti  Rerum ,  should  have  come  so  near  this 
true  idea  of  Divine  Love  only  to  lose  it  in  a  myth 
unbelieved.  Strange  that  Euripides,  in  the  great  pas¬ 
sion  play  of  Bacchae ,  should  not  have  discerned  that 
divine  suffering  is  the  ecstasy  of  God. 

d.  In  itself  substantial  infinite  Love,  which  God  is, 
the  outgoing  of  self  for  other,  is  sacrifice.  That  word 
sacrifice,  I  say,  expresses  the  life  of  God,  and  of  that 
life  the  Incarnation  is  utterance.  The  life  of  the  Eter¬ 
nal  is  dynamic,  not  static.  Therefore  the  Nativity  was 
as  much  a  part  of  the  Passion  of  Jesus  as  His  Cruci¬ 
fixion.  The  whole  life,  from  Bethlehem  to  Golgotha, 
yes,  to  the  Mount  of  Ascension,  was  the  theopliany  of 
unseen  Love.  In  this  sense  it  may  be  truly  asserted 
that  the  Incarnation  is  the  centre  of  all  Theology,  the 
key  of  all  the  creeds.  From  this  revealed  mystery  of 
Love,  as  being  the  operation  or  action  of  the  life  of 
God,  we  are  given  to  understand  what  is  the  true  Chris¬ 
tian  doctrine  of  sacrifice.  That  doctrine  is,  that  sacri¬ 
fice  is  not  for  propitiation,  that  it  is  not  piacular,  that 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


49 


it  is  not  vicarious  punishment,  but  that  it  is  simply 
Love,  the  out-yielding  of  self,  a  law  or  process  which 
is  the  savour  of  life  unto  life  and  not  of  death  unto 
death.  Of  this,  ancient  artists  were  aware  when  they 
depicted  the  cross  of  Christ  of  living  green,  and  Him 
upon  it,  erect,  with  arms  outflung,  as  though  to  fold 
in  embrace  the  worlds,  erect  as  a  King  of  love  upon 
His  throne,  of  whom  it  had  been  said  in  ancient 
records,  “  Tell  it  out  among  the  nations  that  the 
Lord  reigneth  from  the  Tree.1’ 

e.  Such  is  the  glorious  doctrine  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  It  is  infinite,  eternal  love.  True,  “  there  is 
a  gloom  in  deep  love  as  in  deep  water,”  but  modern 
Christianity,  still  under  the  spell  of  a  crude  Folk- 
faith,  goes  beyond  gloom  to  horror,  gives  us  doleful 
symbols  of  divine  Love  vanquished,  of  a  dead  God ! 
Because  Jesus  is  God,  His  infinite  love,  manifested 
in  the  sphere  of  time,  He  must  needs  be  crucified.1 

Jesus  became  incarnate,  not  in  order  to  propitiate 
a  vindictive,  and  exacting,  and  wrathful  Father,  else 
Shakspere’s  Merchant  of  Venice  were  a  nobler  gospel. 
But  He  came,  or  became,  in  order  to  reveal  to  us 
Himself  and  the  Father  as  one  Infinite  God,  the 
Saviour,2  saying,  in  flesh  utterance,  “  That  which  may 
be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in  men.”  3  This  heart  of 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  God  forms  the  basis  of  the 

1  'Epws  i/j-ov  evTatpuTcu,  sang  the  Greek  hymn-writer. 

2  1  Tim.  i.  1  ;  ii.  3  ;  iv.  10. 

3  Rom.  i.  19. 


50 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Epistle  to  the  Romans,  is  especially  the  theme  of  the 
Johannine  writings,  and  incidentally  an  evidence  of 
the  unity  and  authenticity  of  their  origin. 

/.  I  am  persuaded  that  if  Christian  teaching  be 
adjusted  to  this  revelation  of  the  mystery  of  Divine 
Love,  the  questions  which  vex  our  days,  concerning 
inspiration,  and  atonement,  and  justification,  and  sac¬ 
raments,  and  sanctification  immediate  or  progressive, 
on  this  or  the  other  side  of  death,  all  social  and  ethi¬ 
cal  problems,  and  resurrection,  and  retribution,  and 
Church  unity  —  all  would  vanish.  To  this,  praise 
God,  the  Spirit  is  guiding  us.  “  It  is  the  historical 
task  of  Christianity  to  assume  with  every  succeeding 
age  a  fresh  metamorphosis,  and  be  forever  spiritual¬ 
ising  more  and  more  her  understanding  of  the  Christ 
and  of  salvation.”1 

g.  Because  God  is  perfect  love  He  gives  up  Self 
completely ;  that  is,  in  one  aspect,  reveals  Himself 
entirely.  The  apostles  and  early  fathers  perceived 
this.  Justin  Martyr  declares2  that  men  of  every  race, 
that  Socrates,  Heraclitus,  and  others  were  Christians, 
because  they  lived  according  to  reason,  which  is  the 
divine  Word  immanent  in  the  world.  If  the  self¬ 
revelation  be  entire,  then  it  must  be  that  it  is  man’s 
Idea  of  God  which  is  limited  in  its  content3  by  his 
conscious  receptiveness,  and  that  history  is  the  annals 
of  the  education  of  humanity  in  the  quickening  of  the 

1  Amiel’s  Journal ,  3.  2  Apol.  II.  83. 

3  St.  John  xiv.  10,  17. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


51 


God-consciousness.  The  diversity  of  forms  of  the 
Idea  of  God  is  due  to  the  differences  of  degree  of 
receptiveness,  as  through  the  “  soul’s  east  window  of 
divine  surprise,”  stained  and  figured,  the  light  enters 
coloured  and  shaped,  while  outside  abideth  always  the 
pure  white  Light. 

“  The  One  remains,  the  many  change  and  pass  ; 

Heaven’s  light  forever  shines,  earth’s  shadows  fly ; 

Life,  like  a  dome  of  many-coloured  glass, 

Stains  the  white  radiance  of  eternity.” 

li.  Now  this  very  receptiveness  in  its  incomplete¬ 
ness  of  growth  is  the  condition  of  endless  develop¬ 
ment,  for  receptivity  of  the  Infinite  implies  infinite 
receptivity.  So  it  is  a  God-like  potency  in  man,  the 
potency  of  an  endless  growth,  of  an  approximation 
unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ,  of  sanctification,  and  of  the  dominance  of  the 
spirit  unto  eternal  life.  For  God-consciousness  is 
this,  —  first  of  all,  —  to  know1  the  true  God  ;  not  to 
know  about  God,  but  to  know  Him  without  interven¬ 
tion  of  a  minor  premise,  to  know  Him  also  because 
He  is  (if  I  may  use  the  phrase)  lived.  A  holy  life 
is  a  Catholic  Creed,  and  orthodox  theology  is  the 
intuition  of  the  pure  in  heart.  Perhaps  perfect 
receptiveness  implies  apotheosis.  This  bold  corol¬ 
lary  Athanasius  dared  to  accept,  saying,2  “  He  (the 


1  St.  John  xvii.  3. 


2  Be  Incarn.  c.  liv. 


52 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Word  of  God)  became  humanified  in  order  that  we 
might  become  deified.”  The  end  is  by  and  by. 

i.  A  survey  of  the  growth  of  the  religious  idea 
in  human  consciousness  makes  us  aware  of  another 
syllable,  so  to  say,  of  the  Word-made-Flesh ;  another 
thought,  which  is  of  deep  and  wide  import.  There 
is  revelation  and  there  is  revealment.  God  reveals 
Himself  to  man  in  man.  God  in  man  as  in  the  world 
external  to  man,  God  in  man,  a  life  ever  pressing 
against  the  soul’s  barriers,  crying,  “  Lift  up  your 
heads,  oh  ye  gates,  and  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  everlasting 
doors,  and  the  King  of  Glory  shall  come  in.”  Or,  as 
our  Lord  Himself  says,  “  Behold  I  stand  at  the  door 
[of  the  heart]  and  knock,  if  any  will  hear  my  voice, 
and  open  the  door1  .  .  .  my  Father  will  love  him 
and  we  will  come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with 
him.”  2  God  in  man,  Emmanuel,  a  light  ever  shining 
and  waxing  brighter  and  brighter  through  the  earthen 
vase,  in  divers  rites,  customs,  folk-faith  and  myths, 
as  in  the  liturgic  drama  of  history  the  Self-revelation 
of  God  outrolls. 

j.  The  advent  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  not 
an  arrival  from  a  journey,3  but  a  manifestation  of  the 

1  Rev.  iii.  20.  2  St.  John  xiv.  23. 

3  When  Jesus  is  called  6  ipxbp-evos,  it  is  always  in  the  sense  which 
the  Rabbinic  schools  gave  the  idiom,  i.e.  the  Messiah.  The  com¬ 
ing  age,  the  world  to  come,  meant  the  epoch  of  the  Messiah.  For 
the  use  of  (pavtpwa ts,  irapovcrla ,  aiwv  6  p.£X\wv,  dTroKaXv^cs,  see  Weiss, 
Bibl .  Theol. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


58 


Presence  in  which  we  had  always  been,  a  parousia , 
as  Blake  symbolises  the  nearness  of  that  Presence  in 
his  wonderful  Inventions  to  the  Book  of  Job.  When 
Jesus  appeared  He  made  apparent  God.1  He  was 
God,  personally  acting  as  man,  enabling  us  to 

“  Correct  the  portrait  by  the  living  face  ; 

Man’s  God,  by  God’s  God  in  the  mind  of  man.” 

I  do  not  feel  called  upon  to  enter  into  an  examina¬ 
tion  of  the  Biblical  Theology  of  the  Idea  of  the 
Triune  God,  and  of  the  expansion  of  human  recep¬ 
tiveness  in  relation  to  that  Idea.  The  manner  in 
which  that  has  already  been  done  by  one  of  your  own 
Faculty2  leaves  nothing  further  for  you  to  desire. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  now  belongs  to  the  con¬ 
tent  of  Christian  thought  and  life,  however  much  the 
Aufklarung  may  be  flippant  over  “a  celestial  com¬ 
mittee  of  Three.”  Into  the  Biblical  Theology  of  the 
Immanence  of  the  Triune  God  we  ought  to  attempt 
some  little  inquiry,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a  doc¬ 
trine  which  Christian  consciousness  has  not  fully  and 
universally  accepted. 

k.  Take  first  the  Johannine  writings.  In  Revela¬ 
tion  3  the  writer  takes  up  the  symbol  of  the  ancient 
tabernacle  of  Israel,  and  shows  its  fulfilment  in  the 
lives  of  God’s  saints.  Upon  their  spirits,  says  he, 

1  7]  Zo>77  ecpavepwdr],  1  St.  John  i.  2. 

2  P.  H.  Steenstra,  D.D.,  The  Being  of  God  as  Unity  and  Trinity. 

3  vii.  15,  aicyvwcrei  e ir  avrovs. 


54 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


GocI  shall  rest  as  He  rested  upon  the  Mercy-seat; 
and  in  the  same  book  1  there  cries  a  voice  from  the 
unseen  realm,  “  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with 
men,  and  He  shall  tabernacle  with  them,  and  God 
shall  be  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people,  and 
God  Himself  shall  be  with  them.”  As  a  result  of 
the  erosion  of  metaphysics  and  poetry,  the  word 
Truth  has  come  to  correspond  to  a  vague  abstraction. 
To  the  average  mind  it  connotes  little  that  is  clear. 
But  translate  aX-gdeta  by  actuality  or  reality,  and 
therewith  read  the  first  Epistle  to  St.  John,  and  you 
will  find  that  the  fact  of  the  divine  indwelling  will 
come  to  be  sharply  and  distinctly  focussed  out  to  your 
mental  vision.2  In  the  Fourth  Gospel  it  is  seen  that 
the  thought  is  clearly  consonant  with  the  teachings  of 
Jesus.  For  therein  our  Lord  is  recorded  as  saying 
that  while  on  earth  He  remained  in  Heaven,3  be¬ 
cause  He  is  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  Him. 
As  the  Father  dwelleth  in  Him,4  so  shall  the  Chris¬ 
tians  have  God,  the  Spirit,  dwell  in  them  and  be  in 
them,5  and  as  a  result  Christian  consciousness  will 
know  that  Christ  is  in  the  Father,  and  He  in  Christ, 
and  Christ  in  us.6  In  consequence,  a  perfect  divine- 
human  unity  will  come  to  pass.7  From  this  divine- 

1  xxi.  3. 

2  M.  Arnold,  Literature  and  Dogma ,  179. 

3  iii.  13.  4  St.  John  xiv.  10. 

5  St.  John  v.  17.  6  St.  John  xiv.  20. 

7  St.  John  xvii.  21-24. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


55 


human  unity  and  indwelling  of  God  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit,  the  prologue  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
passes  to  the  further  thought  of  the  cosmic  indwell¬ 
ing.  “  That  which  was  made  was  life  in  Him,”1  we 
find  in  the  best  reading,  signifying  that  through  the 
immanence  of  the  Logos  the  universe  is  alive. 

In  a  word  the  Johannine  thought  is  that  Life  (1)  is 
the  manifestation  of  Rational  (2)  Will  (3) ;  Life  (1) 
is  the  Spirit,  Reason  (2)  is  the  Son,  and  Will  (3)  is 
the  Father,  and  in  cosmic  relation,  Life  (1)  is  the 
condition  of  the  world,  Reason  (2)  is  the  form  of  the 
world,  and  Will  (3)  is  the  substance  of  the  world. 
Harmonious  was  this  Idea  of  God  with  the  gnosis  of 
St.  Paul.  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  in 
his  Areopagite  Sermon,2  “  God  is  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us  ” ;  or  to  put  the  matter  in  very  literal  lan¬ 
guage,  “  Even  though  God  be  subsistent,  not  distant 
(or  apart)  from  each  one  of  us,  for  it  is  in  Him  that 
we  live  and  move  and  exist.” 3  In  that  most  won¬ 
derfully  profound  letter  to  the  Romans,  St.  Paul 
expounds  on  this  basis  the  philosophy  of  the  world, 
guarding  against  the  Buddhist  myth  of  the  Veil  of 
Maya,  the  world  as  an  illusion,  which,  nursed  in  the 
cell  of  the  Nitrian  monk,  and  by  the  mystics  of  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Victor,  still  survives  in  many  a  staunch 
Protestant  hymn,  “  This  world’s  a  vain  and  fleeting 
show,”  and  other  words  to  like  effect.  Against  such 

1  St.  John  i.  4.  2  Acts  xxvii.  27,  28. 

3  Cf.  Rom.  xi.  36  ;  2  Cor.  vi.  18 ;  Eph.  i.  23 ;  iv.  6. 


56 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


unreality  of  pietism  and  metaphysical  vagary,  St.  Paul 
asserts,  “  The  unseen  things  of  God,”  i.e.  His  nature 
and  character,  “are  discerned  as  thinkable  ( noumena ) 
*  from  an  observation  of  the  universe  of  an  ordered 
world,  by  means  of  things  made,”  1  which  a  poet  of 
our  day  has  paraphrased,  — 

“  The  Somewhat  which  we  name  but  cannot  know, 

Ev’n  as  we  name  a  star  and  only  see 
His  quenchless  flashings  forth,  which  ever  show 
And  ever  hide  Him  and  which  are  not  He.” 

In  the  same  strain  follow  those  words  from  the 
homily  to  the  Hebrews,  where  it  is  asserted  that  relig¬ 
ious  consciousness  recognises  the  indwelling  of  God 
in  the  world  by  the  manifestation  of  Him  in  the 
process  of  histoiy :  “  By  faith  we  are  aware  that  the 
ages  (eras)  were  fitted  together  by  the  utterance  of 
God,  so  that  out  from  that  which  is  not  apparent  has 
come  into  existence  what  we  look  upon.”  2 

This  is  nothing  less  than  the  enunciation  of  the 
principle  of  the  divine  significance  and  continuity  of 
history  and  of  the  evolution  of  the  world  in  life  and 
thought.  But  there  is  an  element  which  belongs 
before  this,  and  we  find  it  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 


1  ra  yap  abpara  avrov  aTrb  Kriaeus  K6ap.ov  rocs  iroiripLacnv  voovp.eva 
KaOoparai ,  7]  re  cu'Sios  avrov  Svvapus  Kal  OeiorTjs,  k.t.\ Rom.  i.  20. 
Cf.  Vaughan  on  Romans. 

2  Heb.  xi.  3,  irlarei  voovpiev  KarriprlaOai  rovs  aiQivas  p7]p.ari  GeoO, 
els  rb  p,T)  £k  <paivop.£vwv  to  fiXei rbp.evov  yeyovtvai. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


57 


sians,1  where  it  is  asserted  against  the  false  gnosis 
that  the  Son  of  God  zs,  before  2  all  things,  and  in  Him 
all  things  cohere  3  as  the  particles  cohere  in  the  living 
organism.  The  Logos  is  the  bond  of  the  universe,4 
and  is  the  Wisdom  who,  reaching  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  sweetly  orders  all  things.5  Because  of  this 
orderliness,  the  Greeks  called  the  universe  the  kos- 
mos,  the  beautiful  order.  This  order,  the  Pauline 
gnosis  goes  on  to  say,  in  development  of  the  idea,  is 
not  stereotyped,  is  not  rigid  in  death.  The  Living 
One,  who  is  the  life  of  the  world,  lives,  and  the  world 
grows.  Hope  is  the  drive-wheel  of  that  growth  which 
has  been  called  evolution.  The  destiny  of  the  universe 
is  to  become  incorruptible  6  through  the  mediation  of 
sons  of  God,  who  have  thrown  off  “  the  brute  inheri¬ 
tance,”  and  have  attained  unto  God-consciousness. 
At  present  there  is  going  on  in  nature  a  fierce 
struggle  for  existence,  the  contest  with  environing 
forces  which  make  for  disorganisation,7  and  the  uni¬ 
verse  groans  in  agony,  and  in  the  mounting  upward 
of  life  and  in  the  strife  before  the  soul  receives  its 
new  birth  into  the  environment  of  God  and  righteous¬ 
ness,  suffers  birth-pangs.8  Magnificent  is  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  this  cosmic  passion,  that  upon  its  obverse  is 

1  i.  17. 

2  7r p6,  not  7 rplv,  before,  as  the  sun  is  before  its  light,  substance 
is  in  front  of  phenomena. 

3  avv^aTT]K€v.  4  Heb.  i.  3.  5  Wis.  viii.  1. 

6  Rom.  viii.  21,  eXevdepcoOrjaeTaL  awo  rrjs  dovXias  ttjs  <pdopa s. 

7  ( pOopa .  3  avviodivei. 


58 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


a  palingenesis  (St.  Matt.  xix.  28),  an  everlasting 
birth-process,  ewige  Greburt ,  as  Meister  Eckehart 
taught  it,  where  the  world  finds  its  resurrection 
and  eternal  life  only  in  spiritualised  humanity.  Of 
this  world-process  Calvary  was  an  epitome,  and  the 
first  Easter  a  prophecy  of  its  outcome.  Nature  is 
the  divine  tragedy  prolonged.  Now  all  this  is 
brought,  in  the  mind  of  the  apostle,  back  to  personal 
life,  wherein  continues  the  redemptive  process.  “We 
have  one  God,  the  Father,  out  of  Whom  are  all  things, 
and  we  unto  Him  tend,  and  one  Lord,  Jesus  Christ, 
through  Whom  are  all  things,  and  we  through  Him.”1 
Without  being  further  tedious,  I  think  we  may  clearly 
conclude  from  this  much  of  the  Theology  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  the  world  is  in  God,  and  God  is  in 
the  world,  and  that  God  is  the  God  triune. 

1.  The  immanence  of  God  was  not  wholly  hidden 
from  the  religious  consciousness  of  Israel ;  this  I  am 
far  from  asserting.  Witness  — 

“  Whither  shall  I  go  then  from  Thy  Spirit  ?  or 
whither  shall  I  go  then  from  Thy  presence  ? 

“  If  I  climb  up  into  heaven,  Thou  art  there ;  if  I 
go  down  to  hell,  Thou  art  there  also. 

“  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  remain  in 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ; 

“  Even  there  also  shall  Thy  hand  lead  me,  and  Thy 
right  hand  shall  hold  me.”  2 

1  1  Cor.  viii.  6,  note,  ££  ov  ra  vavra, —  els  —  5C  ov —  5i  avrov. 

2  Ps.  xxxix.  6  ff. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


59 


u  Am  I  a  God  at  hand,  saith  the  Lord,  and  not  a 
God  afar  off?  Can  any  hide  himself  in  secret  places 
that  I  shall  not  see  him  ?  saith  the  Lord. 

“Do  not  I  fill  heaven  and  earth?  saith  the  Lord. 

u  I  have  heard  what  the  prophets  said,  that 
prophecy  lies  in  my  name,  saying,  I  have  dreamed,  I 
have  dreamed. 

“  How  long  shall  this  be  in  the  heart  of  the  prophets 
that  prophecy  lies  ?  yea,  they  are  prophets  of  the  deceit 
of  their  own  heart.”  1 

But  the  tendency  of  the  Israelites  to  revert  to  ani¬ 
mistic  and  fetishistic  ideas  of  God  forbade  emphasis 
and  development  of  the  idea.  The  heaven  of  heavens 
cannot  contain  God.  The  universe  where  He  abides 
does  not  hold  Him.2  He  transcends  all  limitations. 
He  is  in  the  world,  yet  more  than  it.  Do  not  associate 
mass  or  size  with  the  idea  of  the  greatness  of  God. 
A  point,  position  without  extension,  is  as  adequate  a 
symbol  of  Him  as  unlimited  space  of  four  dimensions. 
Quantity  is  not  a  category  of  the  Infinite. 

III.  We  have  thus  far  examined  the  soil  and  the 
seed  which  was  cast  into  the  soil ;  it  remains  for  us  to 
find  out  how  it  grew.  It  is  true  that,  in  a  sense,  the 
New  Testament  teaching  of  the  immanent  Triune  is 
synthetic  of  all  the  various  forms  of  Folk-faith  which 
grouped  themselves  under  the  head  of  monotheism, 
polytheism,  and  pantheism.  The  Idea  of  the  Father, 

1  Jer.  xviii.  25  ff. 

2  Bp.  Butler,  Fourth  Letter  to  Dr.  Clark.  Works,  Vol.  II. 


60 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


God  in  His  transcendence,  is  the  truth  of  monotheism  ; 
the  Idea  of  the  Son,  God  dwelling  in  man,  is  the 
truth  of  polytheism ;  and  the  Idea  of  the  Spirit,  God 
pervading  the  worlds,  is  the  truth  of  pantheism. 
Separate,  these  truths  are  false,  because  partial ; 
united,  they  are  the  salvation  of  life.  Therefore  the 
Lord  Jesus  sent  forth  His  apostles  to  baptise  all 
nations  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

a.  The  elementary  proclamations  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  develop  themselves  in  the  human  intellect  by 
the  unavoidable  logic  into  the  dogma  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  Jesus  Christ  taught  that  the  Father  is  God, 
the  Son  is  God,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  God,  and  yet  there 
are  not  three  Gods,  but  one  God.  It  took  more  than 
two  centuries,  however,  for  Christian  thought  to  solve 
this  paradox.1  That  greatest  of  the  ancient  rational 
theologians,  Athanasius,  convinced  the  world  that  the 
Idea  of  the  Triune  God  was  a  truth  of  other  than 
speculative  import,  and  that  it  was  rigidly  logical; 
and  for  his  position  the  aged  fathers  of  the  Nicene 
Council  gave  testimony  that  such  had  been  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  the  apostles  of  the  Lord. 

1  Not  till  the  fourth  century  did  the  Church  receive  the  accurate 
formula  of  the  eternal  generation  of  the  Logos  ;  there  never  was 
when  He  was  not,  ovk  ijv  7 rore  6Ve  ovk  9jv.  Clirystal,  Six  World- 
Councils,  191  ff.  St.  Irenaeus’  doctrine  of  the  dual  nature  of  Jesus 
was  gnostic  in  form.  Harnack,  Dogmengesch.  I.  516.  Fulton,  Index 
Canonum. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


61 


b.  God  is  the  eternal  Subject  who  knows  the  eter¬ 
nal  Object  who  is  known,  and  the  Love  who  unites 
the  two.  Endeavour  to  eliminate  from  your  life  all 
faith  in  the  Father,  or  in  the  Son,  or  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  you  will  find  your  life  distinctly  poorer 
and  less  charged  with  motive,  clearness,  and  hope. 
God  conceived  of  as  love,  is  energy,  action.  Action 
must  result  in  somewhat,  and  of  eternal  action  the 
result  is  eternal.  What  is  that  eternal  result?  Phi¬ 
losophy  from  Hellas  to  Hindustan  responded  that  it 
was  the  world.  But  observation  denied  that  a  finite 
and  changing  world  could  be  eternal.  Consequently, 
God  as  love  must  love  someone  instead  of  somewhat. 
In  one  there  can  be  no  circulation  of  that  love  which 
is  the  life,  which  is  the  being  and  substance  of  God. 
Nothing  without  an  object  can  become  manifest  itself, 
because  it  would  proceed  out  from  self  forever.  It  is 
because  of  this  fact  that  mathematical  monotheism 
invariably  becomes  either  pantheism  or  atheism,  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  divine  nothing.  Action  within  one,  I  say, 
is  impossible.  That  is  why  Brahm  appears  to  be 
sunken  in  a  slumber.  Action  in  two  is  incomplete. 
That  is  why  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  appear  in  the  fir¬ 
mament  of  a  Persian  dualism,  engaged  in  a  struggle 
which  can  never  end.  Action  in  three  is  complete 
circulation ;  the  infinite  turn  and  return  of  that  Life 
which  is  Love.  Fitly  with  this  idea  ends  the  high 
strain  of  Dante’s  mediaeval  miracle  of  song,  at  the 
summit  of  celestial  paradise,  in  the  deep  heart  of  the 


02 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


aureole  rose  of  the  elect  saints  and  angelic  hierarchy. 
Through  the  radiant  medium  of  the  Divine  Humanity, 
he  says :  — 

“  In  the  profound  and  clear  subsistence 

Of  the  lofty  light  appeared  to  me  three  gyres 
Of  colours  three  and  single  continuity  ; 

And  one  from  other  seemed  to  be  reflected, 

As  rainbow  is  from  rainbow, 

While  the  third  appeared  a  fire 

Which  from  the  one  and  from  the  other  equally 
is  exhaled.”  1 

Let  me  put  this  thought  again  :  the  Eternal  Mind, 
conscious  to  Himself,  eternally  produces  a  Logos  like 
Himself.  Because  of  this  likeness  the  Logos  con¬ 
scious  to  Himself  and  the  originating  Mind  to¬ 
gether  produce  also  a  Principle  which  is  imperfect2 
like  Himself,  but  because  the  being  of  the  Logos  is 
derived,  what  He  together  with  Mind  originates  is  a 
procession,  which  is  a  process,  always  going  on,  but 
since  it  is  infinite,  always  complete.  Why,  asks  one, 
should  not  the  third  divine  principle  produce  a  fourth, 
and  so  on?  This  was  the  crux  of  Gnosticism,  and  it 

1  Nella  profondci  e  chiara  sussistenza 

Dell ’  alto  lume  parvemi  tre  girl 
Di  tre  colori  e  d ’  una  continenza  ; 

E  V  un  dalV  altro ,  come  Iri  da  Iri , 

Parea  riflesso ,  e  il  terzo  parea  fuoco 
Che  quinci  e  quindi  egualmente  si  spin. 

Paradiso,  xxxiii.  115-121. 

2  Not  having  what  theologians  term  aseity. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


68 


produced  the  theory  of  emanations.  The  right  answer 
is  that  the  third  principle  does  not  produce  a  fourth, 
because  the  subject  and  object  being  linked,  the  three 
are  complete  in  one  subsistence  and  44  continuity,”  as 
Dante  suggests.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  life  of  the 
world,  and  the  return  of  imperfection  to  perfection 
through  the  Church.1  It  is  by  this  doctrine  of  the 
double  procession  that  the  Latin  Church  preserved 
itself  from  the  vagaries  of  a  Gnosticism,  with  its  end¬ 
less  processions  of  seons  from  a  father  god  and  a 
mother  god,  which  modern  Mormonism  has  revived, 
making  them  with  Adam  to  constitute  the  Trinity. 
The  tendency  in  early  ages  towards  this  speculation 
was  strong.  In  the  Old  Testament  the  Wisdom  is 
feminine.  Origen  speaks  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
woman.2  To  the  mind  of  the  early  Church  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  the  feminine  principle  in  God,  but  a  desire 
to  cut  away  the  ground  from  under  the  Gnostics  and 
to  2‘emove  from  religion  that  which  always  imports 
into  life  moral  degradation,  suppressed  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  this  idea.  Nevertheless,  as  Goethe  says  in 
his  Chorus  Mysticus  at  the  close  of  Faust ,  44  It  is  the 
deathless  ideal  of  womanhood  which  is  always  uplift¬ 
ing  humanity,”  — 

“  Das  Eicig  Weibliche 
ZieTit  uns  liinan ,” 

1 W.  T.  Harris,  IlegeVs  Logic ,  14. 

2  apTL  e'Aa/Se  /xe  i]  p.T)Tr\p  p.ov  rb  ayiov  Uvevp.a  tv  pug.  tujv  rpLx&v  P-ov 
k.t.X.,  Comm.  St.  John,  n.  7.  58.  Cf.  Bigg,  Christian  Platonists  of 
Alexandria ,  15.  n.  1. 


64 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


and  to  supply  the  want  of  such  an  ideal  in  old  days 
they  had  Montanistic  incarnation  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  a  woman,  and  in  modern  days  we  have  the  pious 
opinion  of  the  Assumption  and  enthronisation  of 
St.  Mary  the  Virgin,  “  Our  tainted  nature’s  solitary 
boast”  ;  to  whom,  Wordsworth  believed  that  perhaps, 
“Not  unforgiven  the  suppliant  knee  might  bend.”1 

c.  Traditional  Theology  is  right  when,  upon  the 
basis  of  the  New  Testament,  it  insists  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  person.  That  which  substantially  proceeds 
forth  from  out  of  person  is  person.2  We,  as  con¬ 
scious  persons,  argue  thence  that  God,  our  Source  or 
Cause,  the  All-Father,  is  person.  Thus  the  circle  of 
reasoning  is  completed.  Spiritual  existence  is  found 
to  imply  personality  as  inseparable  from  it.  The 
Holy  Ghost  is  more  than  a  pervasive  spiritual  cur¬ 
rent,  or  atmosphere,  or  aura,  or  subtle  substance  of 
some  imaginary  sort.  He  is  something  more  than  an 
effluence  from  God,  a  stream  from  the  fountain-head 
of  Deity ;  something  more  than  the  influence  of 
Jesus,  either  as  personally  near  us  by  His  ascension 
into  the  plane  of  omnipresence,  or  by  reason  of  the 
effect  of  the  example  of  His  historic  career.  The 

1  Feuerbach,  Essence  of  Christianity ,  c.  vi.,  sees  in  human  nature 
necessity  for  the  divine  motherhood. 

2  The  notion  that  the  term  persona,  person,  signifies  in  theology 
a  role  is  an  error  arisen  from  not  considering  that  the  ancient 
theologians  were  not  etymologists  ;  they  employed  words  in  their 
actual  sense.  Persona  =  OirSaTaais  in  Greek  Theology. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


65 


Holy  Spirit  is  not  a  Zeitgeist ,  nor  a  stream  of  ten¬ 
dency,  nor  the  psychic  course  of  nature.  Or  if  He 
be  these,  He  is  something  more.  He  is  a  Person,  the 
Lord  of  personal  spirits.  If  God  the  Father  be 
immanent  in  the  souls  of  men,  then  by  virtue  of  the 
circuminsession  of  the  Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  also  immanent.  Therefore  there  must 
be  some  sense  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  is  personally 
and  substantially  the  human  soul’s  indwelling  source 
of  life  and  thought.  An  apocalypse  of  this  came  to 
prophet  Ezekiel  in  the  Vision  of  the  Holy  Waters. 
Through  the  personal  Spirit  the  reason  of  the 
eternal  Logos  is  imparted  to  men,  as  Jesus  said, 
44  He  shall  receive  of  Mine  and  shall  show  it  unto 
you,”  and  as  St.  John  commented,  44  The  Life  was 
the  light  of  men.” 

Somehow  thus  the  Christian  consciousness  con¬ 
ceives  of  God  as  triune  in  His  subsistence.  His  life 
and  existence  are  complete  within  Himself.  Conse¬ 
quently  creation  is  not  necessary  to  His  consciousness 
and  life.  Therefore  He  is  not  the  ground  of  evil. 
Thus  at  one  and  the  same  time,  in  removing  a  neces¬ 
sity  of  an  eternal  world,  the  dilemma,  atheism,  —  no 
God,  or  pantheism,  no  world,  —  is  avoided.  God 
still  remains  absolute  and  yet  personal,  since  His 
limitations  are  within  Himself.  I  regret  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  appearing  in  this  lecture  somewhat  transcen¬ 
dental.  The  topic  is  profound.  Thus  much  on  the 
rational  Theology  of  the  Idea  of  God.  In  order  to 


66 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


indicate  the  extent  to  which  traditional  Theology 
received  the  revelation  of  the  Triune  Love  in  Christ 
and  in  the  world,  the  brief  catena  which  follows  is 
all  my  time  will  allow. 

d.  I  think  that  it  should  be  said  that  in  each 
created  thing  are  the  ineffable  sacraments  of  the 
Divine  dispensation.  —  Origen,  Comm.  St.  John 
xxiii.  3. 

The  omnipotent  Logos  pervades  the  universe, 
manifesting  His  energy  throughout  it  and  enlight¬ 
ening  beings  both  visible  and  invisible ;  them  Lie 
holds  together  and  unifies  by  His  powers,  giving  life 
and  preserving  life  for  all  which  exists.  —  St.  Atha¬ 
nasius,  Agamst  Gentiles ,  c.  xlii. 

God  is  within  everything ;  He  is  without  it ;  above 
and  beneath,  and  His  substance  is  not  divided.  It  is 
entire  and  the  same  throughout.  It  pervades  beings, 
dwells  around  them,  dwells  alongside  and  penetrates 
them.  —  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  Morals ,  Bk.  II. 
c.  12. 

God  is  the  fountain  of  being  for  all  that  exists,  the 
source  of  life  for  all  things  which  have  vital  energy, 
and  the  principal  reason  for  all  rational  creatures. 
He  is  the  limitless  Ocean  where  life  exults  in  ful¬ 
ness  of  being  and  vastness  of  extent,  —  a  shoreless 
Sea  which  sole  contains  itself.  —  St.  John  of  Da¬ 
mascus,  Orth.  Faith ,  I.  8,  title  1. 

All  creatures  are  a  theophany.  —  John  Scotus 
Erigena,  Comm,  on  St.  John. 


THE  IDEA  OE  GOD. 


67 


All  things  we  see  should,  in  relation  to  God,  who 
alone  truly  is,  be  called  accidents.  —  Card.  Cusa, 
Exerc .  VII. 

Reason  is  the  inner  light  in  which  God  speaks  to 
us.  —  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Ad.  Magis.  Joan.  Ver- 
cell.  II.  a.  1. 

Reason  is  in  man  as  God  is  in  the  World.  —  Idem, 
De  Reg.  Princ.  Lib.  I.  c.  xii. 

God  is  in  all  things,  not  indeed  as  a  part  of  the 
essence  or  as  an  accident,  but  as  doing  is  in  that 
which  does.  —  Idem,  Summa ,  Ia.,  VIII.  1,  Resp. 

God  after  a  common  way,  by  presence,  by  power, 
and  by  substance,  is  present  in  all  things  ;  in  some 
sense,  however,  He  is  said  to  be  present  in  a  way 
more  intimate,  by  grace.  —  Idem,  I\,  I.,  VIII.  3 
contra. 

e.  From  this  catena  you  may  see  that  the  Idea  of 
God  as  the  immanent  Triune  did  to  some  extent 
enter  the  consciousness  of  Christian  theologians,  but 
against  its  full  acceptance  both  folk-faith  and  philos¬ 
ophy  combined,  and  to  this  day  a  veil  is  upon  the 
heart  of  many  Christian  teachers.  The  old  gods, 
driven  awtty,  linger  still  upon  the  frontiers  of  Chris¬ 
tendom,  or  return  masked.  Venus  and  her  crew 
sallied  forth  from  the  Horselberg  to  ensnare  Christian 
knights.  The  valkyrie  of  Odin  became  the  witches 
of  Christian  Europe.  Minucius  Felix  says  that  the 
gods  of  the  nations  were  devils,  and  Milton  assists 
the  permanence  of  this  revival  in  contemporary  relig- 


68 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ious  thought  by  making  the  old  gods  of  classic 
paganism  the  lords  of  a  Christian  hell.  St.  Paul 
said :  an  idol  is  nothing,  and  even  the  Hebrew 
poet,1  at  a  moment  of  deeper  insight,  perceived 
that  the  false  gods  were  non-existent.  Arianism, 
which  St.  Athanasius  and  the  Nicene  fathers  feared 
would  bring  back  polytheism,  did  in  fact  develop 
in  an  opposite  direction.  The  children  of  Arius  and 
of  Ulfilas  have  merged  into  congenial  Islam.  The 
notion  of  bare  transcendence  of  God  in  relation  to 
the  world,  a  pagan  element,  still  survives  in  the 
common  acceptance  of  Socinian  and  Zwinglian  sys¬ 
tems.  In  former  times  it  was  this  notion  which  gave 
character  to  the  Antiochine  school  of  exegesis,  and 
suggested  to  Nestorius  his  eccentric  position.  One 
form  of  the  notion  of  bare  transcendence  is  the  expan¬ 
sion  of  the  concept  of  divine  sovereignty  by  a  dis¬ 
proportionate  extension  of  the  principle  of  absolute 
foreordination,  and  by  that  notion  of  divine  govern¬ 
ment,  which  is  known  as  “  pre established  harmony,”  2 

1  Ps.  xcvi.  5,  elilim ,  Heb.,  lit.  nothings.  Vulgate  translates  it 
dcemonici. 

2  Bouillier,  Philosophie  Cartesienne ,  II.  451  ff.  Much  to  answer 
for  has  Leibnitzian  speculation  with  its  preestablished  harmony,  and 
that  “best  of  all  possible  worlds,”  which  used  poor  Candide  so 
roughly  ;  because  the  theory  of  Leibnitz  and  his  school  brought  in 
that  sterile  deism  of  Voltaire  and  of  Hobbes,  which  chilled  the  life 
of  the  Anglican  Church  of  the  eighteenth  century,  till  warmed  by 
the  piety  of  Venn,  Newton,  Cooper,  Walker,  Cecil,  Simeon,  and  the 
other  early  evangelicals,  together  with  the  fervour  of  the  first 
Methodists. 


THE  IDEA  OE  GOD 


69 


as  though  God  had  wound  up  the  circling  universe 
as  a  watch  is  wound  up,  or  set  it  spinning  like  a  top. 

Common  in  our  childhood  were  the  ideas  of  God, 
as  of  one  sitting  afar  off  beyond  the  clouds  upon  a 
white  marble  seat,  looking  down  upon  the  revolving 
suns  and  planets,  and  the  busy  ant-hill  of  this  world ; 
or  as  in  the  ancient  epic,  where  it  was  said  that 
Zeus  had  gone  away  for  a  twelve-days  feast  among 
the  blameless  Ethiopians ;  or  as  when  Elijah  with 
immeasurable  sarcasm  mocks  the  priests  of  Baal,  — 
“  Cry  aloud :  for  he  is  a  god ;  either  he  is  talking,  or 
he  is  pursuing,  or  he  is  in  a  journey,  or  peradven- 
ture  he  sleepeth,  and  must  be  awaked.” 1  When 
the  notion  of  the  solitary  transcendence  of  God  sur¬ 
vives  or  revives  in  Christianity,  the  idea  of  the  trinity 
of  the  Divine  Being  is  implicitly  contradicted  ;  the 
Father  and  Son  are  put  in  opposition,  as  the  Mani- 
chees  and  Albigensians  (and  high  Calvinists  vir¬ 
tually)  conceived  of  them.  An  expiatory  and 
propitiatory  theory  of  sacrifice,  a  theory  distinctly 
heathen,  survives  from  folk-faith ;  all  teaching  of 
divine  omnipresence  becomes  irrational,  incompre¬ 
hensible,  and  futile ;  grace  becomes  a  substantial 
efflux  to  bridge  over  the  chasm  between  God  and 
His  world ;  consequently  the  Church  assumes  a  sacer¬ 
dotal,  and  the  grace  of  the  sacraments  a  material, 
nature.  The  object  of  religion  is,  upon  this  premise, 
supposed  to  be  the  soothing  of  divine  wrath,  and  an 


1  1  Kings  xviii.  27. 


TO 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


evasion  of  the  penalty  of  sin,  the  resurrection  to  be 
a  corporeal  resuscitation,  and  everlasting  life  a  combi¬ 
nation  of  precious  metals,  precious  stones,  and  endless 
psalm-singing. 

The  inexorable  verdict  of  history  is  that  the  con¬ 
cept  of  the  Trinity  is  the  only  permanent  form  of 
the  Idea  of  God ;  it  is  the  only  rational  form.  It  is 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  God.  “It  was  through  the 
Christian  religion  that  the  absolute  Idea  of  God,  in 
its  true  conception,  attained  consciousness.  Here 
man,  too,  finds  himself  comprehended  in  his  true 
nature,  given  in  the  specific  concept  of  the  Son” 1 
It  is  the  only  basis  for  the  teaching  of  foreign 
missions.  Clear  away  from  this  idea  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  accretions  of  survivals  of  primitive  folk- 
faith. 

In  pagan  days  of  Rome,  a  temple  was  erected  to 
Romulus,  and  his  aid  and  protection  for  young  and 
sick  children  were  invoked  by  the  memory  of  his  own 
arduous  infancy.  That  same  temple  is  now  standing, 
converted  into  the  church  of  St.  Theodoras,2  and  in 
that  church  at  the  present  day  may  be  seen  Italian 
mothers  with  their  infants,  in  prayer  before  the  high 
altar,  or  making  votive  offerings,  invoking  the  aid 
and  intercession  of  St.  Theodoras.  Here  cultus  of 
the  saints  is  clearly  seen  to  be  a  survival  of  ancestor- 
worship,  and  an  ancient  god  is  still  worshipped  in  the 

1  Hegel,  Phil,  of  Hist.  III.  3. 

2  Tylor,  Primitive  Cult.  II.  121. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


71 


guise  of  a  Christian  modern  saint.  Likewise  in  the 
popular  religion  of  the  Greeks  of  the  present,  that 
mountain  which  was  anciently  held  sacred  to  the 
sun,  f/H Ato?,  is  now  reverenced  as  Mount  St.  Elias. 
Every  one  knows  that  St.  George  of  Nicomedia 
never  existed.  His  legendary  contest  with  the 
dragon  is  a  survival  of  the  myth  of  Ilorus  and 
Typhon,  belonging  to  Egyptian  mythology,  the 
mythos  of  a  never-ending  victorious  contest  of 
good  over  evil,  which  is  the  solution  of  the  riddle 
of  pain  and  sorrow.  Art  was  the  bridge  over 
which  many  religious  ideas  of  heathendom  crossed 
to  Christendom.  Especially  Gnostic  art.1  Notwith¬ 
standing  St.  Paul  exhorted  the  Galatai  of  his  day 
to  abandon  belief  and  worship  of  “  poor  and  power¬ 
less  elementary  spirits,”2  contrasting  them  with  the 
real  and  vitalising  energy  of  Christ,  nevertheless 
to  this  day  the  Christianised  descendants  of  these 
Galatians  offer  religious  service  to  the  elementary 
spirits  of  mountains,  trees,  and  waters,  calling  them, 
as  their  ancestors  did,  stoiclieia.3  A  survival  of 
Animism  is  evident  in  modern  spiritism  and  occult¬ 
ism.  Also  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  “  Christian 

1  Cf.  Theodoret,  Eccles.  Hist.  I.  15.  Didron,  Christian  Iconog¬ 
raphy,  passim.  J.  P.  Lundy,  Monumental  Christianity.  G.  W. 
King,  The  Gnostics  and  their  Bemains. 

2  (rrot%eia,  Gal.  iv.  9. 

3  L.  M.  J.  Garnett,  The  Women  of  Turkey  and  their  Folk-Lore , 

I.  130. 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Science,”  which  is  not  Christian,  and  is  not  Science. 
Fetishism  is  too  obviously  the  characteristic  of  some 
theories  of  the  sacraments  and  of  their  operation,  to 
demand  particular  illustration.  A  curious  instance 
of  the  development  towards  polytheism  is  to  be  found 
in  Pere  Lacordaire’s  Letters  from  Italy,  where,  having 
adopted  a  “special  devotion”  to  the  “Madonna  of  the 
Oak,”  he  writes  back  to  a  friend  in  France  whose  cult 
is  the  Madonna  of  some  other  title,  “  My  Madonna 
salutes  your  Madonna.”  Extraordinary  !  Yet  there 
is  but  one  Madonna.  In  the  faith  of  the  common 
people  Our  Lady  of  Loretto  is  as  distinctly  another 
individual  from  Our  Lady  of  Sorrows  as  the  Greek 
Here  was  another  person  from  Aphrodite. 

Ilia  somewhat  like  spirit  the  Provencal  Christians, 
the  Albigensians,  and  others,  thought  of  the  Eternal 
Father  as  wrathful,  hateful.  Jesus,  whom  they  loved 
and  worshipped  as  mild  and  merciful,  they  set  over 
against  the  Father.  This  dualism  is  a  survival  of 
Gnostic  and  Manicliee  influence.  The  stained  win¬ 
dows  in  South  French  cathedrals  have  preserved 
evidence  of  the  survival  of  this  oriental  dualism.1 
Modern  Romanism  has  not  wholly  freed  itself  from 
this  dualistic  survival ;  the  cultus  of  Mary  tends  to 
present  her  as  more  benignant  than  her  son.  This  is 
all  due  to  the  primitive  notion  of  a  divine  mediator. 
For  example,  the  Christ  in  the  Last  Judgment  of 
Michael  Angelo  is  far  from  being  as  lovable  as  Mary 

1  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  I.  180-191. 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


73 


in  Fra  Angelico’s  Coronation  of  the  Virgin  and  in 
the  Madonnas  of  Botticelli  and  Luini. 

IV.  What  is  the  task  of  Christian  teachers  on  this 
standing  point?  I  shall  not  answer  after  the  manner 
of  Dr.  Bushnell  in  his  famous  lectures,  when  he 
advised  his  hearers  to  stick  close  to  the  old  termi¬ 
nology,  while  they  privately  meant  his  new  interpre¬ 
tation  of  the  Atonement.  I  grant  that  it  is  indeed  a 
serious  question  whether  we  can  immediately  remove 
the  mythical  and  pagan  elements  which  survive  in 
Christian  Theology  and  in  popular  religion,  without 
the  risk  of  impairing  their  ethical  force  and  moral 
sanction  for  the  average  man.  But  have  we  not 
had  enough  of  the  evils  of  accommodation  ?  Modern 
thought  is  already  careless  of  an  absentee  God. 
Wordsworth  in  despair  at  the  empty  deism  of  his 
day,  in  anguish  cries  out :  — 

“  Great  God  !  I’d  rather  be 

A  Pagan,  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn : 

So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 

Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn.” 

For  my  part  I  accept  heartily  the  thought  of  Amiel 
recorded  over  forty  years  ago:  “  Our  century  wants 
a  new  Theology ;  that  is  to  say,  a  new  and  more 
profound  explanation  of  the  nature  of  Christ  and  of 
the  light  which  it  flashes  on  Heaven  and  humanity.” 
Too  long,  gentlemen,  have  we  been  in  bondage  to 
a  philosophy  which,  since  Bacon,  has  put  a  chasm 


74 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


between  God  and  His  word ;  too  long  have  the  faiths 
of  the  childhood  of  humanity  alloyed  the  pure  gold 
of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  by  an  extension  of  the 
Vincentian  canon  have  been  constituted  the  ortho¬ 
doxy.  We  have  halted  between  two  opinions,  the 
God  revealed  in  Jesus,  and  the  Baalim.  At  this 
vacillation  the  world  is  becoming  impatient.  When 
Plotinus  was  dying  he  said,  “  I  am  striving  to  bring 
the  God  which  is  within  me  into  harmony  with  the 
God  of  the  Universe.”  This  suggests  the  task  of 
Christian  teachers  in  the  premise.  Quicken  the  God- 
consciousness  in  each  soul.  Teach  men  that  there  is 
no  truth  for  any  man  until  he  lives  it,  that  only  in 
so  far  as  men  make  truth  and  life,  creed  and  deed, 
identical,  can  they  know  truth.  To  know  God,  do 
good. 

A  need  of  our  new  age  is  a  profound  and  ever- 
wakeful  sense  of  the  presence  of  God.  This  can  be 
received  intellectually  only  as  we  comprehend  with 
mind  and  heart  that  significance  of  the  Incarnation 
expressed  in  the  name  Emmanuel,  and  that  signifi¬ 
cance  is  first  the  sure  and  real  presence  of  God  in 
the  world  and  in  men,  and  consequently  that  man¬ 
hood  is  eternal  because  of  the  abiding  of  an  eternal 
element  in  it;  that  pain  and  sorrow,  the  agony  of  the 
world,  are  evidences  not  of  death,  but  of  the  imma¬ 
nent  Life.  If  any  one  thinks  that  he  hears  the  ebb 
of  faith’s  ocean, — 


THE  IDEA  OF  GOD. 


75 


“Its  melancholy,  long,  withdrawing  roar, 

Retreating,  to  the  breath 
Of  the  night-wind,  down  the  vast  edges  drear 
And  naked  shingles  of  the  world,”  — 

let  him  not  dream  that  love  of  truth,  of  righteous¬ 
ness,  that  self-control,  all  merely  for  their  own  sake, 
that  unselfishness,  that  assent  to  “  a  Power  outside  us 
not  ourselves  that  makes  for  righteousness,”  —  these 
alone,  can  in  this  nineteenth  century  take  the  room 
of  Father  God.  No;  God  is  something  more  than  a  • 
stream  of  tendency,  more  than  qualities,  wisdom  and 
goodness.  So  it  is  high  time  that  we  men  should 
definitely  decide  whether  Mr.  Arnold  and  Mr.  Moody 
are  the  voice  of  the  Zeitgeist  in  the  wilderness  of 
these  latter  days.  It  is  high  time  that  we  should 
confess  our  divine  sonship,  in  virtue  of  which  alone 
we  are  able  from  the  ground  of  the  heart  to  say, 

“  Our  Father  ”  ;  that  from  Jesus  instead  of  from  meta¬ 
physics  we  should  seek  the  true  content  of  the  Idea 
of  God,  and  like  St.  Ignatius  to  the  Romans,  confess, 

“  I  am  Theophoros,  the  God-hearer,  for  I  carry  Christ 
within  me.”  This  alone  is  the  basis  of  that  human 
brotherhood  which  arouses  the  undying  enthusiasm 
of  humanity.  Only  thus  can  we  come  into  that 
temper  wherein  we  are  able  rightly  to  consider  the 
importunate  social  problems  which  press  upon  us 
at  this  end  of  the  century.  This  alone  is  the  ground 
of  a  reasonably  religious  and  holy  hope.  Rest  as¬ 
sured  that  when  brought  to  the  test  of  the  needs  of 


76 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


life  it  will  be  found  that  while  the  speculative  idea 
of  the  Holy  Trinity  may  vex  the  non-philosophical 
mind,  nevertheless  practical  life  cannot  eliminate 
from  thought,  from  ideal,  from  motive,  from  action, 
the  idea  of  God  as  love  infinite  and  immanent,  of 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Finally,  it  is  the  ground  of  that  personal 
devoutness  to  the  immanent  triune  Love  which  can 
make  its  prayer  — 

“  Oh,  Hidden  Love,  who  now  art  loving  me  ; 

Oh,  wounded  Love,  who  once  was  slain  for  me ; 

Oh,  sun-crowned  Love,  who  art  alive  for  me ; 

Oh,  patient  Love,  who  weariest  not  of  me,  — 

Alone  of  all  Thou  weariest  not  of  me. 

Oh,  bear  with  me  till  I  am  lost  in  Thee, 

Oh,  bear  with  me  till  I  am  found  in  Thee.” 


THE  CHURCH. 


Nam  et  Ecclesia  proprie  et  principaliter  ipse  est  Spiritus  Sanctus 
in  quo  est  Trinitas  unius  Divinitatis. — Atque  ita  exinde  etiam 
numerus  omnis,  qui  in  lianc  fidem  conspiraverit,  Ecclesia  ab  auctore 
et  consecratore  censetur.  Et  ideo  Ecclesia  quidein  delicta  con- 
donabit,  sed  Ecclesia  Spiritus  per  Spiritalem  hominenqnon  Ecclesia 
numerus  Episcoporum,  domini  enim  non  famuli,  est  jus  et  arbitrum  ; 
Dei  ipsius  non  sacerdotis. 

Tertullian,  de  Pud.  XXI. 

It  is  evident  unto  all  men,  diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and 
ancient  Authors,  that  from  the  Apostles’  time  there  have  been  these 
Orders  of  Ministers  in  Christ’s  Church, — Bishops,  Priests,  and 
Deacons.  Which  offices  were  ever  more  had  in  such  reverend 
Estimation,  that  no  man  might  presume  to  execute  any  of  them, 
except  he  were  first  called,  tried,  examined,  and  known  to  have 
such  qualities  as  are  requisite  for  the  same  ;  and  also  by  public 
Prayer,  with  Imposition  of  Hands,  were  approved  and  admitted 
thereunto  by  lawful  Authority.  And  therefore,  to  the  intent  that 
these  orders  may  be  continued,  and  reverently  used  and  esteemed 
in  this  Church,  no  man  shall  be  accounted  nor  taken  to  be  a  lawful 
Bishop,  Priest,  or  Deacon,  in  this  Church,  or  suffered  to  execute 
any  of  the  said  Functions,  except  he  be  called,  tried,  examined,  and 
admitted  thereunto,  according  to  the  form  hereafter  following,  or 
hath  had  Episcopal  Consecration  or  Ordination. 

Preface  to  the  Ordinal ,  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

If  any  Man  therefore  shall  affirm,  either  that  during  the  contin¬ 
uance  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Merits  of  Christ’s  Death  actually 
to  come,  were  not  sufficient  to  save  all  true  Believers  ;  or  that  there 
was  then  no  Catholick  Church  ;  or  that  at  any  time  there  was  any 
other  Bock  but  Jesus  Christ,  the  blessed  Seed  upon  whom  the  Cath¬ 
olick  Church  was  then  built ;  or  that  many  of  the  gentiles  were  not 
always  (for  aught  that  is  known  to  the  contrary)  true  members  of 
the  Catholick  Church  ;  or  that  Christ  Himself  was  not  the  sole 
Head  or  Monarch  all  that  while  of  the  whole  Catholick  Church ; 
or,  that  the  said  Catholick  Church ,  after  the  members  of  it  were 


78 


dispersed  into  all  the  places  of  the  World,  was  otherwise  visible  than 
per  partes  ;  or,  that  Noah  did  appoint  any  man  to  be  the  visible 
Head  of  the  said  Catliolick  Church ;  or,  that  the  High  Priest 
among  the  Jews  had  any  more  authority  over  the  Catholick  Church 
of  God,  than  King  David  had  over  the  Universal  Kingdom  of  God  ; 
or,  that  the  said  High  Priest  had  not  greatly  sinn’d,  if  he  had  taken 
upon  him,  or  usurped  any  such  infinite  Authority  ;  he  doth  greatly 
Erre. 

Bp.  Overall’s  Convocation  Book,  Canon  xxxvi. ,  a.d.  1C06. 

I  believe  that  this  holy  Church  is  Catholic,  that  is  to  say  that  it 
cannot  be  coarcted  or  restrained  within  the  limits  of  any  one  city, 
town,  province,  region  or  country,  but  that  it  is  dispersed  and 
spread  universally  throughout  all  the  whole  world.  Insomuch  that 
in  what  part  soever  of  the  world,  be  it  Africa,  Asia  or  Europe, 
there  may  be  found  any  number  of  people  of  what  sort,  state  or 
condition  soever  they  be,  which  do  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father, 
Creator  of  all  things  and  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  and 
in  one  Holy  Ghost,  and  do  always  profess  and  have  all  one  faith,  one 
hope,  one  charity,  according  as  it  is  prescribed  in  Holy  Scripture  ; 
and  do  all  consent  in  one  true  interpretation  of  the  same  Scripture 
and  in  the  right  use  of  the  Sacraments  of  Christ,  we  may  boldly 
pronounce  and  say  that  there  is  this  Holy  Church,  the  very  Espouse 
and  Body  of  Christ,  the  very  Kingdom  of  Christ  and  the  very  temple 
of  God. 

Institution  of  a  Christian  Man ,  1537. 

Le  christianisme  historique  s’est  affirme  de  tout  temps  comme 
la  religion  absolue.  L’Histoire  de  ses  dogmes  n’ autorise  point 
une  semblable  pretention.  Elle  nous  montre  ses  docteurs  de  tous 
les  ages,  depuis  les  apotres  jusqu’aux  reformateurs,  variant  souvent 
dans  leurs  opinions,  se  contredisant,  se  combattant  sans  treve, 
affirmant  un  jour  ce  qu’ils  nieront  le  lendemain,  et  construisant 
ainsi,  piece  a  piece,  au  milieu  des  luttes  les  plus  vives,  l’imposant 
edifice  de  ses  doctrines. 

Haag,  Histoire  des  Dogmes  Chretiens. 

79 


SYNOPSIS. 


Introduction  : 

Nothing  in  folk-religions  closely  analogous  to  the  Christian 
Church. 

Comparative  Religion  : 

I.  — The  nearest  approaches  in  primitive  culture  to  a  Church. 

a.  Shamanism. 

b.  Mysteries  of  Eleusis. 

c.  Roman  Imperialism  vs.  Protestant  Individualism. 
Birlical  Theology: 

II.  — The  New  Testament  doctrine  of  the  Church. 

a.  The  teachings  of  Jesus. 

b.  The  acts  of  Jesus.  He  constitutes  simultaneously  and 

together  the  Church  and  its  ministry. 

c.  The  Church,  as  such,  is  visible. 

d.  Function  of  Baptism,  place  of  repentance. 

Traditional  Theology  : 

III.  —  Some  traditional  opinions  about  the  Church.  The  slow 

development  of  the  “four  notes”  of  the  article  of 
the  creeds. 

IV.  —  The  utter  indefiniteness  of  primitive  and  early  Christian 

consciousness  as  to  the  nature  and  essence  of  the 
Church.  Christian  theologians,  however,  agree  that 
the  Church  is  necessary  for  salvation. 

Present  Problem  : 

V.  — Critical  examination' of  the  “four  notes”  of  the  Church 
to  determine  their  value  and  real  existence. 
a.  One  —  not  two  or  more  —  communion  an  outward 
sign  ;  uniformity  not  requisite  ;  view  of  the  several 
forms  of  Church  government  in  their  relation  to 
organic  unity  of  Christendom  ;  their  relation  to 
God  as  immanent ;  unity  of  Christendom  cannot 
arrive  till  we  have  abandoned  literalism  in  Theology 
and  Biblical  interpretation. 


80 


b.  Holy.  The  witness  of  History.  Holiness  of  the 

Church  realised  in  her  individual  members,  but  not 
alone  in  assent  to  dogma.  Holiness  then  a  ter¬ 
minus  ad  quern  of  the  Church  in  Time.  Relation 
of  Sacraments  to  holiness.  The  Church  the  highest 
exponent  of  that  redemptive  operation  which  is 
discerned  in  the  cosmic  process. 

c.  Catholic  does  not  denote  extension,  or  exclusive 

possession  of  divine  truth,  or  the  life  of  the  world 
arising  into  consciousness ;  but  does  suggest  that 
Church  is  living,  and  that  Christian  consciousness 
of  the  present  is  to  be  accepted  as  the  nearest 
approximation  to  reality.  The  true  place  of  tra¬ 
dition.  Catholicity  is  intensive,  not  extensive,  in 
the  Church. 

d.  Apostolic.  This  does  not  forbid  living  development 

of  Theology.  What  is  Apostolic  Succession  ? 
Will  it  support  the  “  Sacramental  System”  ?  It 
is  a  fact  and  witness  to  historic  continuity.  Con¬ 
clusion,  that  the  “four  notes”  of  the  Church  are 
goals  or  ideals  towards  which  the  Church  tends. 

Practical  Teaching  : 

VI.  —  Practical  import  of  this  idea  of  the  Church  ;  its  relation 
to  various  organisations,  religious  and  secular,  and 
to  the  realisation  of  Corporate  Unity.  The  Unity  of 
the  Spirit  and  the  bond  of  peace. 


81 


THE  CHURCH. 


Gentlemen  :  — 

The  Church  is  the  unique  creation  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Nothing  in  all  ancient  heathendom 
answers  to  it  in  constitution  or  in  institution.  Such 
a  thing  as  a  congregation  of  faithful  men  was  not 
known.  Only  the  telesterion,1  the  hall  of  the  initia¬ 
tion  of  the  mystai  at  Eleusis,  corresponded  to  a  mod¬ 
ern  church  building.  The  ancient  temple  was  a 
shrine,  naos ,  for  the  abiding  divinity,  or  a  precinct 
marked  off  on  ground  and  sky,  temenos  and  templum , 
for  the  observation  of  auspices,  or  simply  a  sacred 
spot,  hieron.  It  was  not  for  the  people.  The 
Parthenon  could  in  its  entirety  have  been  set  down 
inside  the  nave  of  Cologne  Cathedral.  A  single 
boulder  or  isolated  rock  in  Hindustan  often  served 
to  carve  out  a  complete  temple.  The  vast  temples 
of  Egypt  were  for  priests,  pomps,  and  sacred  beasts, 
and  not  for  the  laity.  But  the  Stoic  sects  in  the 
West,  and  northern  Buddhism  in  the  East,  were  at 
an  early  date  so  impressed  with  the  methods  of 


1  Dyer,  Gods  in  Greece,  189. 
83 


84 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


organisation  of  the  Christian  Church,  that  they 
adopted  some  of  its  external  features.  Every  at¬ 
tempt  at  tracing  the  evolution  of  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  synagogue  and  theocracy  of  Israel 
will  have  to  he  abandoned ;  for  the  inner  principle  of 
the  Church,  as  I  expect  to  show,  is  distinctly  differ¬ 
ent  from  the  Jcahal  of  Israel 1  and  from  the  Levitical 
hierarchy.  While  the  origin  of  the  Christian  Church 
may  not  be  discovered  in  ancient  folk-faith  and 
customs,  it  is  nevertheless  evident  that  precedent 
conditions  did  at  the  beginning  limit  the  reception  of 
the  Church-idea  and  shape  the  development  thereof. 

I.  a.  In  primitive  culture  the  church  is  the 
priesthood,  the  shamans  or  medicine  men  of  the 
tribes ;  and  religion  consists  in  performing  ceremo¬ 
nial  acts.2  Thence  flow  down,  glacier-like,  into  later 
civilisation,  two  streams  of  survival,  —  religious  func¬ 
tions  in  the  domain  of  Christian  worship  and  magic, 
whether  sanctioned  for  our  credence  by  Pierre 
d’Aban,  Cornelius  Agrippa,  and  that  painful  and 
godly  man  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  or  implied  in 
ex  opere  operato  doctrines  of  the  Atonement  and  of 
the  Sacraments.  Also,  according  to  the  faith  of 
primitive  folk,  the  priest  or  the  chief  priest  is  the 
representative  of  his  tribe  or  gens.  He  is  the  per- 

0 

1  As  the  school  of  Vitringa  assumes;  cf.  Killen,  Framework  of 
the  Church. 

2  Note,  sacrifice,  from  sacrum  facer e,  to  do  a  sacred  thing,  and 
to  do  it  rite,  correctly.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  passim. 


THE  CHURCH. 


85 


so7ia  gentis ,  tlie  parson,  and  because  he  must,  in 
this  office  and  capacity,  act  with  careful  consideration 
for  others,  he  is  the  prototype  of  our  modern  gentle¬ 
man.  In  him  is  bound  up  the  welfare  of  his  people, 
for  he  is  something  of  a  corporation  soul  of  the  tribe; 
through  him  the  gods  speak,  his  word  is  god’s-spel, 
gospel,  and,  as  such,  is  infallible.  Because  he  alone 
can  direct  the  layman  how  to  appease  divine  wrath,  to 
offer  acceptable  gifts,  and  to  believe  right  things,  the 
shaman  is  regarded  as  a  vicar  of  the  gods  and  a  medi¬ 
ator  between  gods  and  men.1  In  many  cases  he  is 
held  to  be  the  son  of  the  god,  and  is  not  allowed  to 
grow  old  or  to  die  in  weakness  or  disease,2  lest  the 
life  of  the  tribe  should  thereby  wane  with  him.  He  is 
therefore  slain  while  in  his  full  vigour,  and  is  thought 
to  carry  away  with  him  to  the  ghost-world  the  sins 
of  the  tribe.  In  another  sense  he  the  representative 
of  the  corporate  life  of  the  tribe ;  in  a  word,  the  cor¬ 
poration  soul,  by  fiction  said  never  to  die.  O  King, 
live  forever ;  the  King  is  dead ;  long  live  the  King ; 
the  King  never  dies.  What  divine  or  singular 
powers  belong  to  the  priesthood,  the  primitive  priest 

1  Clergymen  in  Cornwall  are  supposed  to  be  able  to  drive  out 
evil  spirits.  A  woman  asked  one  to  walk  around  her  and  read 
some  passages  of  the  Bible  in  order  to  exorcise  the  ghost  of  her 
dead  sister,  who,  in  the  form  of  a  fly,  persistently  worried  her. 
Folk-Lore  Journal ,  v.  27.  George  Fox  also  was  convinced  that  he 
had  the  power  of  exorcising  the  devil.  See  “Journal.”  Cf.  Re¬ 
ports  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  passim. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Bough ,  c.  3. 


86 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


transmits  to  his  successors  through  touch  or  by  the 
transmission  of  the  sacerdotal  insignia  of  masks, 
cloaks,  costume,  and  conjuring  apparatus.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  survival  of  this  folk-faitli  the  priesthood 
is  the  Church ;  that  is  to  say,  the  fifth  essence  of  it. 

b.  The  subtle  and  spiritualising  intellect  of  the 
Hellenic  peoples  took  up  these  crude  elements  of 
earlier  thought,  and  transmuted  them  into  a  profound 
mythos  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  where  the  story  of 
Dionysus  and  of  Demeter  set  forth  the  highest  pagan 
idea  of  the  divine  Soul  of  the  world  and  of  the  secret 
of  sorrow  as  revealed  in  the  redemptive  issues  of  life. 
But  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  were  for  the  select,  the 
mystai,  the  initiated,  and  the  adept.  Their  high 
doctrines  were  strictly  esoteric.1  Who  cannot  per¬ 
ceive  the  survival  of  this  conception  in  parts  of 
Christendom  of  to-day,  in  the  Abyssinian  Church, 
with  fold  upon  fold  of  curtains  surrounding  the  altar ; 
in  the  Greek  Church,  with  its  veiled  altars  shut  in  by 
lofty  iconastases,  from  behind  which  the  voice  of  the 
priest  is  heard  muffled,  in  the  proclamation,  “  Holy 
things  for  the  holy,”  2  and  in  the  solemn  bidding, 
twice  repeated,  “Let  the  catechumens  depart?” 
Almost  we  catch  the  echo  of  the  herald  of  the 
ancient  pagan  mysteries,  Procul ,  o  procul ,  este  pro- 
fani!  Not  even  modern  Protestantism,  Genevan  or 
Anglican,  has  thoroughly  relinquished  this  notion 
that  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  for  adepts  only. 

1  Dyer,  Gods  in  Greece ,  c.  v.  2  ra  ayi a  to? s  aylois. 


THE  CHURCH. 


87 


c.  Another  powerful  factor  in  shaping  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  Church  has  been  the  tradition  of  Roman 
imperialism.  Rome  was  the  inverse  of  the  Jewish 
theocracy,  and  yet  by  its  genius  for  organisation  and 
centralisation,  Rome  has  perpetuated  in  Christendom 
the  theocratic  system  of  Israel  in  a  Christian  form. 
Imperial  Rome  had  no  Church  and  no  dogma.  The 
State  took  the  place,  and  the  emperor  was  Pontifex 
Maximus.  The  civil  law  prescribed  beliefs.  Dante, 
through  a  strict  imperialist,  bewails  in  one  place  the 
secular  survival  of  Roman  imperialism:  — 

“Ah,  Constantine,  of  how  great  evil  was  the 
mother,  not  thy  conversion,  but  that  dower,  the  first 
rich  pope  from  thee  did  capture.”  1 

It  was,  however,  not  by  a  fabled  dot,  that  Constan¬ 
tine,  the  first  Christian  emperor,  corrupted  the  Church, 
but  by  impressing  it  into  the  form  of  a  monarchy, 
making  the  hierarchy  the  reverse  of  that  coin  whose 
obverse  bore  the  image  of  Csesar.2  The  parish  and 
the  diocese  were  in  Constantine’s  time  names  of  divis¬ 
ions  of  the  Christian  Church.3  With  the  theory  of 

1  Ahi  Constantin ,  di  quanto  mal  fu  matre , 

Non  la  tua  conversion ,  ma  quella  dote 

Che  da  te  prese  il  primo  riccopatre  l 

Inferno ,  xix.  115. 

2  Renan,  Hibbert  Lectures,  The  Influence  of  Borne  on  Christi¬ 
anity  and  the  Development  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

3  Pelliccia,  Polity  of  the  Christian  Church ,  Sec.  iv.  1,2;  Moeller, 
History  of  the  Christian  Church ,  329  ff.  ;  Fulton,  Index  Canonum  ; 
Guizot,  History  of  Civilisation. 


88 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Roman  imperialism  that  the  State  was  the  Church, 
both  the  Vedas  of  the  Orient,  and  Plato  in  his  Repub¬ 
lic  agree,  but  the  bishops  of  Rome,  by  the  logic  of 
events  more  powerful  than  their  own  wills,  reversed 
antiquity.  The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  through  bulls 
and  interdicts  and  crusades,  exactly  inverted,  for  a 
while  at  least,  the  pagan  imperial  idea.  Will  Rothe’s 
dream  ever  become  realised,  and  the  Church  be  merged 
in  the  State ;  or  further,  to  adapt  Browning’s  lines,  — 

“  That  one  Face,  far  from  vanish  rather  grows, 

Or  decomposes  but  to  recompose, 

Becomes  my  Universe  and  feels  and  knows?” 

But  this  is  transcendental.  Within  the  bosom  of 
autocratic  Rome  there  existed  an  adverse  element, 
which  in  due  time  was  to  manifest  itself  in  revolt 
against  all  traditional  form  of  church  organisation. 
I  allude  to  the  Roman  Collegia,  the  Greek  ercupeiai, 
and  their  derivatives,  the  guilds  and  brotherhoods  of 
the  Teutonic  nations.  The  principle  of  these  soci¬ 
eties  was  popular  and  democratic.  They  elected 
their  own  officers,  whose  powers  derived  from  the 
society ;  their  object  was  mutual  benefit,  charity  and 
fellowship.  Working  under  the  surface  of  society 
and  hidden  from  Church  authorities,  they  finally 
emerged  into  the  light  of  ecclesiastical  history  as 
the  congregational  forms  of  church  organisation, 
such  as  have  arisen  in  these  latter  days.  These  are 
our  survivals  from  ancient  Rome,  —  Papacy  and  Con- 


THE  CHURCH. 


89 


gregationalism.  Between  them  lies  Anglicanism, 
logically  inconsistent,  yet  resting  upon  a  foundation 
firmer  than  logic :  these  three  forms  are  the  only 
tenable  shapes  of  ecclesiastical  organisation. 

II.  Into  such  a  field  of  the  world  the  Divine  Sower 
went  forth  to  sow  His  seed.  What  precisely  was  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  touching  the  Church? 

a.  The  Lord  came  not  to  teach  a  new  system  of 
philosophy  or  of  ethics.  His  purpose  was  not  pri¬ 
marily  humanitarian,  nor  ultimately  mystical.  He 
began  with  a  proclamation 1  of  the  joyful  message  2 
of  God.  This  is  termed  “  the  Gospel  of  the  King¬ 
dom,”3  and  its  burden  was,  “The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand ;  repent  ye,4  and  believe  in  the  gos¬ 
pel.5  From  the  parable  of  the  sower,  it  is  clear  that 
at  the  time  these  words  were  spoken  the  Kingdom 
was  within  Jesus.6  Jesus  is  the  revealment  of  God  ; 
that  is,  God  the  Saviour  self-revealing  Himself  in  an 
individual  of  humanity.  That  which  Jesus  is,  God 
is.  Jesus  is  Saviour,  because  God  in  His  eternal 
and  essential  character  is  Saviour.  The  significance 
of  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus  is  found  in  this, 
that  Fie  reveals.  But  to  those  who  are  blind,  He 
cannot  make  Himself  to  be  a  revelation  of  God 

1  KTjpvcraeLv,  St.  Mark  i.  14.  2  evayy £\iov. 

3  St.  Matt.  iv.  23.  4  ixeravoelre.  5  St.  Mark  i.  15. 

6  Cf.  St.  Matt. xi.  27,  “No  man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father  ; 
neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  to  whom¬ 
soever  the  Son  will  reveal  Him.” 


90 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  Eternal.  There  must  be  a  receptive  condition. 
For  this  reason,  Jesus  cried,  “Repent,”  change  your 
mental  attitude,1  your  entire  way  of  looking  at  life, 
and  believe  in  the  good  message.  This  effected,  God 
enters  more  fully  into  the  life  of  man.  It  is  not  that 
the  Eternal  changes  His  attitude  of  favour  toward 
men.2  He  is  One,  and  changeless.  In  the  three  par¬ 
ables  in  St.  Luke,3  God  as  the  Good  Shepherd  is 
searching  for  the  sheep  ;  as  the  woman,  is  diligently 
seeking  the  coin ;  and  as  the  father  of  the  prodigal 
He  always  loves  and  yearns  after  His  child.  Truly, 
the  Triune  God,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  is  revealed 
to  be  near  at  hand,  —  God  within  His  world,  recon¬ 
ciling  it  unto  Himself.  This  Kingdom  is  not,  as  the 
Jews  hoped  and  supposed,  a  state  with  armies  and 
thrones,  and  Zion  exalted  in  the  place  of  impe¬ 
rial  Rome.  No,  the  Kingdom  of  God  cometh  not 
with  observation ;  it  is  a  Kingdom  of  the  poor  in 
spirit.  For  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  within;  for  God  is 
within  thee,  immanent.  Now  it  is,  in  truth,  difficult 
sometimes  to  distinguish  in  the  New  Testament 
between  the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  and  the  Church.  The  reason  is  sound,  yet 
they  are  not  synonymous.  The  Kingdom  of  God  is 
as  leaven  which  one  took  and  hid  in  three  measures 
of  meal.  Clearly  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  disem¬ 
bodied.  Perhaps  in  this  it  is  true  as  Spenser  sang,  — 
“  For  soule  is  forme,  and  doth  the  bodie  make  ” ; 

1  ixeTavoeire.  2  Is.  lix.  1,  2  ;  James  i.  17  ;  Rom.  xi.  29.  3  xv. 


THE  CHURCH. 


91 


the  divine  leaven  generates  the  Church,  for  the  King¬ 
dom  of  God  is  originally  God  Himself,  the  immanent 
Triune,  and  the  Church  arises  from  the  conscious 
union  of  souls  with  the  God  within.  Our  Lord  sets 
forth  His  measures  of  meal ;  in  plain  words,  His 
Church.  At  the  beginning  He  says,  u  I  will  found  My 
Church,” 1  and  every  word  tells.  St.  Paul  freely  devel¬ 
ops  the  thought,  and  something  organic  and  external 
is  undeniably  implied.  In  another  place  2  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  repeats  the  same  figure.  This  indicates  dis¬ 
tinctly  that  He  instituted  His  Church.  To  His 
apostles  or  disciples  He  says,  “Ye  have  not  chosen 
Me,  but  I  have  chosen  you.”  3  The  disciples  did  not 
therefore  institute  a  collegium ,  or  society,  or  voluntary 
club.  The  purpose  of  this  institution  is  disclosed  by 
the  Founder,  “  As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so 
send  I  you.”  According  to  the  implied  premise,  no 
mission  could  be  more  plenary  in  power  and  author¬ 
ity.  In  these  days  the  first  elements  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ  are  called  sociology,  so  far  have  we  lost  the 
seaise  of  a  Saviour  God,  a  saving  Church  and  what  it 
actually  is  to  be  saved. 

b.  How  was  this  society  constituted  ?  Not  much 
can  be  gained  from  the  memorabilia  of  Jesus.  St. 


1  OLKoSo/JL'T/O' U)  flOV  T^V  iKKXrjalo,  V,  St.  Matt.  xvi.  18 - OLKodo/JLri,  1  Cor. 

xiv.  12-26  ;  ot/coSo/xetV,  xiv.  4 ;  2  Cor.  x.  8,  xiii.  10.  Rom.  xiv.  19, 

xv.  2  ;  Epli.  iv.  29,  etc.  The  Church  is  built  as  the  world  is  built, 
as  a  body  is  built. 

2  St.  Luke  vi.  48. 


3  St.  John  xvi.  16. 


92 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Matthew  gives  us  to  understand  that  upon  the  prin¬ 
ciple,  or  the  consciousness,  of  divine  Sonship  the 
Church  is  founded.  This  means,  as  the  words  of  this 
place  show,  vital  relation  with  the  Holy  Spirit  within. 
From  St.  John1  we  learn  that  the  apostolate  was  con¬ 
stituted  together  with  the  Church.  Upon  this  point 
I  beg  leave  to  insist.  The  Church,  then,  is  called  a 
net,  which  holds  fishes,  small  and  great,  good  and 
worthless.  It  is  also  a  tree,  because,  as  instinct  with 
the  Spirit  of  Life,  it  grows  freely  with  the  process  of 
the  years.  It  is  distinctly  obvious  that  Christ’s 
religion  in  its  organised  form  is  not  individual,  but 
corporate.  When  on  the  cross,  He  declined  the 
ministry  of  a  single  person,  but  accepted  the  same 
service,  when  offered  by  combined  endeavour,2  and 
His  promise  is  to  two  who  agree  touching  a  petition, 
and  where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together,  there 
will  He  be.  The  Church,  as  we  shall  see,  was  insti¬ 
tuted  and  constituted  together.  In  St.  Luke  it  is 
told  how  the  two  returned  from  Emmaus  and  found 
the  eleven  and  those  with  them ; 3  and  while  they 
were  talking,  Jesus  appeared  in  the  midst,4  and 
breathed  upon  the  assemblage,  possibly  over  five  hun¬ 
dred,  and  said,  “  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.”  From 

1  xv.  16. 

2  Cf.  St.  Matt,  xxvii.  48  with  St.  John  xix.  29  ;  and  Sewall, 
Microscope  of  the  New  Testament,  111  ff. 

3  xxiv.  33,  rovs  ZvdeKa  Kal  roi/s  ai>v  avrois. 

4  St.  John  xx.  19. 


THE  CHURCH. 


93 


this,  as  well  as  from  what  has  preceded,  it  is  evident 
that  our  Lord  founded  His  ministry  together  with 
the  Church,  and  as  a  component  part  thereof : 1  not 
that  it  was  evolved  from  the  laity  according  to  the 
congregational  theory,  or  developed  from  the  hier¬ 
archy  according  to  prelatical  imaginings.  In  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  concerning  His  Church  we  have 
its  two  sides  given  together  and  unseparated,  the 
Spirit  and  the  organic  structure,  the  invisible  and 
the  visible,  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the  Church. 
The  Kingdom  of  God  is  the  soul  of  the  Church,  God 
the  Holy  Spirit  outgoing  into  the  world.  The  Church 
is  the  special  organon  of  God. 

c.  While  the  Kingdom  is  the  inner  substance  of 
the  Church,  it  is  the  procession  and  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  within  the  individual  souls,  and  within 
the  corporate  organism  of  the  Church.  As  our  Lord 
is  the  pattern  of  the  perfect  individual  soul  and  char¬ 
acter,  so  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  the  perfect  ideal  of 
human  society.  That  this  ideal  might  be  realised  in 
the  world,  the  Church  was  instituted  and  constituted 
in  the  manner  which  we  learn  from  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  The  Nineteenth  Article  of  Religion  has  a 
fairly  good  working  definition  of  the  Church  suited 
to  our  times.  “  The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a 
congregation  of  faithful  men,  in  the  which  the  pure 
Word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the  Sacraments  be 
duly  ministered  according  to  Christ’s  ordinance,  in 


1  Acts  xi.  15. 


94 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


all  those  things  that  of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the 
same.”  Admirably  vague !  I  do  not  like  the  phrase 
“  Visible  Church,”  for  it  is  a  pleonasm.  The  Church 
is  by  its  institution  and  constitution  visible,  except 
where  extending  over  those  who  depart  thence  in 
the  Lord. 

d.  In  the  relation  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  Church, 
there  is  a  double  process  from  without  to  within,  and 
from  within  to  without.  We  are  born  into  the  King¬ 
dom  of  God  by  metanoia,1  repentance,  conversion, 
change  of  heart,  of  mind,  of  character,  of  purpose, 
and  the  like.  This  puts  us  into  vital  union  with 
God,  who,  in  a  final  sense,  is  the  Kingdom.  The 
soul  is  open  to  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  begets  obedience  to  Jesus  in  external  acts, 
including  His  sacramental  ordinances,  and  thus  we 
come  into  that  external  or  visible  fellowship,  which 
is  the  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  we  may,  by  bap¬ 
tism,  be  born  into  the  Church,  an  environment  of 
sacred  and  sanctifying  influences  which  quicken  the 
God-consciousness,  so  that  we  are  brought  into  vital 
union  with  the  holy  God,  which  results  in  metanoia. 
The  Church  is  fitly  named  in  the  apostles’  prayer, 
“  The  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ” ;  for  its  oper¬ 
ation  is  to  unite  man  with  God,  and  men  with  one 

1  Metanoia,  translated  in  New  Testament  by  “repentance,” 
connotes  so  much  more  than  the  word  “repentance”  to  most 
minds  that  I  shall  here  use  the  word  in  English.  Metanoia  signi¬ 
fies  not  only  sorrow  for  sin  and  resolve  for  good,  but  a  change  of 
the  whole  mind  and  character. 


THE  CHURCH. 


95 


another,  until  the  Saviour’s  prayer  shall  be  fulfilled, 
“  That  they  all  may  be  one  even  as  we  are  one,  I  in 
them,  and  Thou  in  Me,  that  they  may  be  made  per¬ 
fect  in  one.”  1 

III.  a.  The  Idea  of  One  Holy  and  Apostolic 
Church,  the  Communion  of  Saints,  was  not  early 
developed  in  the  consciousness  of  Christendom.  In 
the  East  this  article  of  the  Church  does  not  occur  in 
the  creed  of  St.  Ignatius,  a.d.  107,  nor  in  that  of 
Origen  at  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  nor  in  the 
creed  of  Lucian  of  Antioch  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century.  It  first  appears  in  the  private  creed 
of  the  arch-heretic  Arius,  328.  At  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  taught  his 
catechumens  to  profess  faith  “in  One  Holy  Catholic 
Church  ” ;  and  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  Epi- 
phanius,  the  Father  of  Orthodoxy,  says,  “We  believe 
in  One  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church.”  The  Nicene 
creed  has  no  article  of  the  Church,  but  in  the  Nicene- 
Constantinopolitan  form  it  appears  in  all  its  fulness, 
“  One  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church.”  This 
point  was  reached  in  the  East  toward  the  close 
of  four  hundred  years  of  Christian  thought.2  In 
the  West,  owing  to  the  accident  of  distance  from 
the  centre  of  living  theological  thought,  tradition 
early  came  to  be  relied  upon.  St.  Irenseus,  at  the 
close  of  the  second  century,  begins  his  creed  thus  : 

1  St.  John  xvii.  23. 

2  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte  II.  267,  note  1. 


96 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


“  The  Church,  though  scattered  through  the  whole 
world  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  has  received  from  the 
apostles  and  their  disciples  the  faith.”  And  again: 
“  If  the  apostles  had  not  left  to  us  the  Scriptures, 
would  it  not  be  necessary  to  follow  the  order  of 
tradition  which  those  to  whom  they  committed  the 
churches  handed  down  ?  ” 1  Upon  this  notion  of 
Irenseus,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  question,  has 
been  based  the  theory  of  tradition.  Nevertheless, 
Irenseus  goes  on  to  say  what  is  utterly  contrary  to 
traditionalism.  Indeed,  it  looks  like  rationalism  or 
mysticism.  “  To  this  order,”  says  he,  “many  nations 
of  barbarians  give  assent,  those  who  believe  in  Christ, 
having  salvation  written  on  their  hearts  by  the  Spirit, 
without  paper  and  ink,  and  guarding  diligently  the 
ancient  tradition.”  After  all,  Irenseus  may  be  quoted 
for  distinctly  opposite  sides ;  controversy  drove  him 
to  lay  much  stress  upon  Church  and  tradition. 

In  this  confusion  of  ideas  we  see  the  mingled  ten¬ 
dencies  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches.  Let 
us  examine  more  closely  the  development  of  the  idea 
of  the  Church  by  the  Latin  theologians.  Tertullian, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  inserts  in  his 
rehearsal  of  faith  no  article  of  the  Church.  Novatian, 
the  dissenter,  a.d.  230,  alludes  to  the  Church,  but 
makes  it  no  article  of  his  creed.  But  St.  Cyprian,  who 
controverts  the  Novatians,  asserts  strongly,  “  I  be¬ 
lieve  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  eternal  life  through 


1  Against  Heresies ,  iii.  4,  1. 


THE  CHURCH. 


9T 


Holy  Church.”  u Extra  ecclesiam  nulla  solus.”  In 
the  old  Roman  creed,  A.D.  341,  the  article  of  “  Holy 
Church  ”  occurs,  having  crossed  over  from  Carthage. 
Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  Rufinus,  and  Augustine  A.D. 
400  know  the  article  of  “  Holy  Church.”  Nicetas,  in 
the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  inserts  in  his  rehear¬ 
sal  of  faith,  “Holy  Catholic  Church.”  In  the  Sacra¬ 
mentary  of  Gaul,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century,  we  have  “  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the 
Communion  of  Saints  ” ;  but  not  until  St.  Pirmin, 
and  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  do  we  find  that 
the  Latin  Church  generally  arrived  at  the  formula  of 
the  “  Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  Communion  of 
Saints,”  and  at  the  Apostles’  Creed  as  we  now  recite 
it.1  The  Eastern  Church  to  this  day  has  not  yet 
reached  a  formulated  permanent  definition  of  the 
Church.2  But  the  Greek  Church  did  go  so  far  as  to 
condemn  Cyril  Lucar’s  doctrine  that  the  elect  alone 
constituted  the  Church  of  Christ. 

IV.  In  the  old  days  the  question  was,  “  What 
sign  givest  thou?”  likewise  in  the  present  day  the 
world  requires  marks  of  the  Church.  If  this  won¬ 
derful  organisation,  which  is  called  the  “  Body  of 
God,”  be  in  the  world,  how  shall  we  recognise  it 
should  we  meet  it  in  the  highways  ?  Is  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  the  sum  of  those  who  acknowledge 

1  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom ,  II. 

2  Wiener,  Confessions  of  Christendom ,  332  ;  Moeller,  Sym¬ 
bolic,  II.  7  If. 


98 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Christ  to  be  superior  to  all  other  men  in  wisdom, 
power,  and  goodness  ?  Is  it  made  up  of  those  who 
are  born  of  the  water,  or  of  the  Spirit,  or  of  both? 
Is  it  a  compact,  well-defined  association  with  doctrines 
and  worship  completely  uniform?  Is  it  endowed 
with  special  and  occult  powers,  and  has  it  a  hierarchy 
with  peculiar  gifts  not  personal  but  official  ?  Are  all 
the  members  of  this  society  spotless  in  life,  unerring 
in  their  ideas,  and  with  eyes  ever  fixed  on  the  golden 
domes  of  heaven?  If  the  trumpet  of  the  creeds 
gave  forth  an  uncertain  sound,  we  are  prepared  to 
find  the  early  divines  of  Christendom  also  vague  in 
their  notion  of  the  Church.  In  the  Ignatian  Epistle 
to  the  Smyrneans,  A.D.  168  (?),  we  already  find  this 
strong  expression,  “  Wherever  Jesus  Christ  may  be, 
there  is  the  Catholic  Church  ”  ; 1  but  this  should  not 
be  hastily  quoted  for  the  confusion  of  ecclesiasticism 
by  some  Martin  Marprelate,  because  in  the  same  sen¬ 
tence,  and  just  before  these  words,  the  writer  had 
said,  “  Wherever  the  bishop  may  appear,  there  let  the 
congregation  be.”  Evidently  this  correspondent  of 
the  Smyrneans  was  not  non-prelatical.  The  eucha- 
ristic  prayer  in  the  Didache  contains  a  petition  that 
the  Church  may  be  “gathered  into  the  kingdom” 
of  God,  in  order  that  it  may  be  “  delivered  from  evil 
and  perfected.” 2  Nothing  here  of  the  theory  of  a 

1  Epistle  of  St.  Ignatius  to  the  Smyrneans,  viii.,  Lightfoot, 
Apostolic  Fathers ,  129. 

2  The  Teachings  of  the  Apostles,  cc.  ix.,  x.,  Lightfoot,  ut  sup ., 
221. 


% 


THE  CHURCH. 


99 


Church  for  the  holy  and  worthy  alone,  for  those  alone 
who  know  by  experience  that  they  are  washed  and 
sanctified  and  accepted!  St.  Irenseus  shows  the  effect 
of  his  Roman  environment  when  he  says,  “  Wherever 
the  Church  is,  there  is  the  Spirit  of  God.” 1  Yet 
Irenseus  goes  on  to  say,  “  Where  the  Spirit  of  God  is, 
there  is  the  Church  and  every  kind  of  grace ;  but 
the  Spirit  is  truth.”  This  throws  all  again  into  con¬ 
fusion.  Could  any  ecclesiasticism  be  more  arrogant? 
Yet  observe  that  in  these  citations  there  is  nowhere 
a  definition  of  the  Church.  Even  the  Alexandrine 
theologians  were  vigorous  believers  in  the  Church. 
The  mild  Clement  writes  positively,  “  As  the  will  of 
God  is  His  work  and  is  named  Kosmos,  so  also  His 
purpose  is  the  salvation  of  men,  and  this  is  called  the 
Church.”  2 

The  taint  of  Shamanism  must  have  survived 
strongly  in  the  blood  of  the  African  churchmen, 
Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Donatus,  and  Augustine,  who, 
all  of  them,  define  the  Church,  when  they  venture 
near  any  definition,  as  inhering  in  the  clerical  order. 
St.  Cyprian  in  particular  introduced  the  idea  of 
Roman  imperialism  into  the  Church,  in  his  effort  to 
get  at  basis  of  unity.  Personally  St.  Cyprian  con¬ 
tradicted  his  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  Church  as 
sitting  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  just  so  soon 
as  the  occupant  of  that  chair  did  not  think  with 
Thascius  Csecilius  Cyprianus.  The  Cyprianic  idea 

1  Against  Heresies,  iii.  24.  2  Paidagogos ,  1,  G. 


100 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


obtained.  It  was  congenial  to  the  conditions  of  its 
day.  As  heathen  Rome  had  conquered  heathen  Car¬ 
thage,  so  now  Christian  Carthage  came  to  dominate 
and  dictate  the  thought  of  Christian  Rome.  With  it 
all,  from  St.  Polycarp  to  St.  Augustine,  the  most  dil¬ 
igent  examination  discovers  only  this,  the  opinion  of 
the  absolute  necessity  of  a  Church  outside  which 
there  is  no  salvation.  In  this  opinion,  by  the  irony 
of  things,  both  Protestant  and  Romanist  at  the  present 
agree.  How  any  one  is  to  determine  clearly  what 
constitutes  this  necessity  of  salvation,  they  never 
agree  to  say.  St.  Ignatius  thinks  that  the  necessary 
element  is  the  Episcopate.  Tertullian  and  St.  Cyprian 
say  it  is  the  realm  of  Peter’s  throne  till  Peter’s  throne 
decides  against  them ;  then  they  think  differently. 
Origen  says  the  Church  is  made  up  of  petrine  people ; 1 
St.  Clement,  the  Alexandrine,  of  knowing  people,2 
but  not  making  it  clear  whether  these  knowing  ones 
were  speculative  or  practical  knowers  of  God.  The 
Montanists,  Donatists,  Novatians,  and  the  like,  all 
emphasised  the  subjective  side  of  the  Church.  They 
were  lineal  successors  of  the  old  collegia  and  mys¬ 
teries.  To  them  it  seemed  intolerable  that  any  but 
the  pure,  the  adepts,  the  initiated,  should  be  reckoned 
in  the  Christian  society.  They,  by  generations  of 
secret  teaching  and  training,  were  utterly  opposed  to 
monarchial  organisation  in  Church  or  out  of  it.  Con¬ 
sequently  an  Episcopacy  which  was  not  a  temporary 


1  TT^TpOL. 


2  yvuGTiKoi. 


I 


THE  CHURCH.  101 

office  seemed  to  them  arrogant.  More  outrageous 
in  their  eyes  was  the  extreme  development  of  prelacy 
by  St.  Cyprian.  Though  we  search  as  carefully  as 
we  can  among  ancient  churchmen  and  separatists, 
nowhere  do  we  find  any  clear  or  consistent  consensus 
about  the  idea  of  the  Church,  consequently  nowhere 
a  Catholic  definition.  The  practical  solution  of  the 
question,  each  polemical  theologian  made  for  himself. 
St.  Augustine  called  those  who  did  not  agree  with 
him,  “sort  of  Christians”  Qquoquomodo  Christiani). 
And  the  custom  inaugurated  by  such  august  author¬ 
ity  is  notoriously  still  far  from  obsolete. 

Y.  It  has  come  about  in  the  run  of  years  that 
Christendom  confesses  at  length  that  there  is  one 
Holy  and  Catholic  Apostolic  Church.  Where  is  it? 
When  was  it?  Was  it  over  in  Palestine  before  Paul 
withstood  Peter  because  the  latter  was  to  be  blamed, 
and  they  twain,  with  their  retainers,  like  Lot  and 
Abram,  set  their  faces  in  opposite  directions  ?  Was 
it  when  Athanasius  stood  against  the  world?  Was 
it  in  the  pusillanimous  and  ignoble  compromise  in 
the  Council  of  Florence?  Was  it  in  Calvin’s  harsh 
regency  of  Geneva,  or  in  the  servile  Convocation 
which  dared  not  protest  when  Henry  Tudor  styled 
himself  the  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church?  These 
four  notes  which  Theology  sounds  with  deep  satisfac¬ 
tion  are  really  the  scorn  of  History.  As  external  signs 
they  have  never  been  realised  in  all  the  chronicles  of 
wasted  Time.  Yet  we  do  well  to  believe  them,  for 


102 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


they  are  the  potencies  of  the  Church,  the  ways  of  the 
Spirit’s  outworking  in  the  world,  syllables  of  the 
word  which  God  in  humanity  utters,  the  process  of 
the  operations  of  God-consciousness,  the  highest  mani¬ 
festation  of  God  in  the  world,  reconciling  it  unto 
Himself,  and  therefore  the  ideal,  the  goal  of  the 
evolution  of  the  Church  which  our  blessed  Lord 
founded.  As  Jesus,  by  His  kenosis,1  subjected  His 
divine  knowledge  and  power  to  human  limitations, 
a  thing  the  apocryphal  gospels  convict  themselves 
in  not  recognising,  so  the  Church  is  another  kenosis 
of  God  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  through  the  ages  it 
increases  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  and  in  favour 
with  God  and  man.2  The  “  four  notes  ”  are  the 
marks  of  the  high  calling  of  the  Church,  the  calling 
which  shall  be  attained  when  the  Leaven  has  leavened 
the  whole  of  the  measures  of  meal,  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God  has  come ;  i.e.  is  evidently  manifested  as  iden¬ 
tical  with  the  Church.  Then  shall  Humanity  have 
become  the  word  and  the  utterance  of  God  to  all  the 
worlds. 

a.  The  Church  is  one.  The  Donatist  objection 
that  distinction  between  visible  and  invisible,  ideal 
and  real,  Churches  sets  up  two  or  more  Churches, 
still  stands  good.3  The  Church  of  Israel  was  bound 
together  by  kinship:  this  bond  Jesus  strongly  and 

1  Phil.  ii.  7,  ctXAa  eavrov  £k£v waev. 

2  Aquinas,  Summa ,  IIIa.  15. 

3  Bellarmin,  Eccles.  Milit.  c.  ii. 


THE  CHURCH. 


103 


repeatedly  rejects.  In  its  place,  taking  the  ancient 
and  world-wide  symbol  of  blood  brotherhood  esteemed 
closer  than  kinship,  He  —  I  will  not  exactly  say  sub¬ 
stituted,  because  the  soul,  the  life,  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  was  at  first  alone  His,  —  He  began  to  generate 
the  one  Church.  Because  there  is  one  God,  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  one  Spirit,  there  is  one  body. 
When  in  any  measure  that  unity  is  realised  in  exter¬ 
nal  signs,  they  are  one  Lord  as  the  object  of  religion, 
one  faith  as  the  motive  of  life,  and  one  baptism  as 
the  ceremonial  sign  of  the  same.  Klee,  the  Roman 
Catholic  theologian,  tells  us  1  that  in  the  early  Church 
unity  was  signified  and  maintained  by  (1)  Letters 
of  Communion,  (2)  by  the  Dyptichs,  (3)  by  the 
Eulogia,  portions  of  the  eucharistic  food  sent  and 
exchanged  by  bishops  and  presbyters  far  removed 
from  one  another,  and  (4)  by  the  Agapse  or  Love- 
Feasts.2  Here,  at  all  events,  we  have  definite  signs 
of  a  definite  tangible  thing.  Unfortunately,  however 
neat  this  statement  looks,  as  a  matter  of  fact  its  prac¬ 
tical  working  served  only  to  signify  those  who  agreed 
together.  As  circumcision  was  a  visible  sign  of 
membership  in  the  congregation  of  Israel,  it  is  reason¬ 
able  to  conclude  that  we  are  correct  in  our  interpre¬ 
tation  of  the  gospel  story  that  baptism  is  the  covenant 

1  Histoire  des  Dogmes  Chretiens ,  Vol.  I.  82. 

2  Cf.  with  this  custom  of  Love-Feast  the  ancient  avdpeia  of  the 
Spartans,  Cretans,  and  Carthaginians,  and  the  Charistia  of  the 
Romans. 


104 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


sign  of  the  Church.  Therein  shall  we  not  recognise 
a  form  of  unity,  not  perfect  hut  inceptive?  Every 
person  baptised  according  to  the  manner  and  form 
dictated  by  Christ  is  a  member  of  Christ’s  Church; 
yet  since  other  things  belong  to  the  integrity  of  this 
organisation,  such  a  membership  of  individuals  does 
not  make  societies,  sacred  or  secular,  Mormon  or 
Masonic,  to  which  baptised  persons  may  belong,  uni¬ 
fied  into  the  Church.  Unity  is  not  necessarily  uni¬ 
formity  in  creed,  ritual,  or  in  Church  government. 
Creeds  pass  because  their  language  becomes  obsolete ; 
ceremonies  vary,  and  should  vary,  according  to  the 
temper  and  culture  of  the  worshippers.  There  still 
survives  among  us  the  taste  for  the  sacred  mask  dances, 
which  passed  into  the  Dionysiac  rites  and  gave  birth 
to  the  deathless  dramas  of  JEschylus,  Sophocles,  and 
Euripides,  and  then  down  through  the  Middle  Ages 
in  mystery,  miracle,  and  passion  plays,  and  in  the  dra¬ 
matisation  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  to  rep¬ 
resent  before  the  eyes  of  simple  people  the  divine 
tragedy  of  the  cross.  There  is,  indeed,  no  lack  of 
manuals  of  devotion  which  for  our  edification  point 
out  when  the  celebrant  represents  Christ  in  His 
betrayal,  and  when  in  His  trial  before  Pilate,  and 
when  He  bowed  the  head  and  died.  Now  to  say 
“  these  things  shall  not  be  ”  is  simply  to  ignore  that 
human  culture  and  development  have  several  degrees. 
To  enforce  such  a  law  of  uniformity  would  result  in 
narrowing  down  the  Church  to  the  receptiveness  of 


THE  CHURCH. 


105 


the  “knowing  ones,”  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages  in  the 
foremost  files  of  time.  They  are  few  ;  but  if  they  are 
spiritually  uplifted  by  the  mystical,  metaphysical 
devotion  of  a  Friends’  meeting,  in  God’s  name  let 
them  have  it.  At  all  events  let  us  now  determine 
nevermore  to  waste  valuable  hours  in  conventions, 
diocesan  or  general,  over  rubrics  designed  to  secure 
minute  and  absolute  uniformity.  That  can  never  be 
done  so  long  as  minds  differ.  So  long  as  we  are  in 
bondage  to  the  crudest  literalism  of  Scripture,  creed, 
and  rubric,  so  long  will  there  be  diversity,  disunion, 
and  schism.  The  Spirit  unites  ;  the  letter  divides. 

There  are  two  broad  types  of  Church  organisation, 
the  episcopal  and  the  congregational.  All  others  are 
modifications  of  one  of  these.  Papacy  is  an  extreme 
of  prelacy.  As  an  historical  development  it  is  quite 
intelligible ;  as  an  evolution  from  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  it  can  offer  no  respectable  claim.  Of  testi¬ 
monies  of  the  fathers  for  and  against  the  Petrine 
Claims 1  I  presume  you  are  weary.  I  am.  The  great 

1  However,  I  append  some  fresh  matter  in  this  note.  St.  Chrysos¬ 
tom  calls  Peter  the  foremost  of  the  apostles,  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
disciples,  and  the  leader  of  the  chorus  or  band.  —  Com.  on  St.  Matt. 
xvi.  19. 

In  St.  Augustine’s  Sermons,  76,  we  find  this  declaration : 
“  Simon  was  the  name  of  His  foremost  disciple  before  Christ  gave 
him  the  name  of  Peter,  the  figurative  signification  of  which  name 
is  the  Church.  Petra ,  or  rock ,  represents  Christ ;  Petrus ,  or  the  dis¬ 
ciple,  represents  Christian  people.  Petra ,  or  rock ,  is  the  principal 
designation,  just  as  Petrus  is  from  Petra,  not  Petra  from  Petrus. 


106 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


obstacle  to  the  unity  of  the  Church  inhering  in  the 
Papacy  is  the  lapses  of  the  Papacy,  and  present  prob¬ 
lematical  validity  of  the  Pope  according  to  the  canon 


So  in  like  manner  Christ  is  not  called  from  Christian,  but  Christian 
from  Christ.  Thou  art  Petrus,  and  on  this  petra  which  thou  hast 
confessed,  upon  this  rock  which  thou  hast  recognised  in  saying, 
‘  Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,’  I  will  build  My  Church  ; 
that  is,  upon  Myself  as  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  I  will  build  My 
Church.  Upon  Myself  I  will  build  thee,  not  Me  on  thee.  The 
Church  is  not  built  upon  them,  but  upon  Christ.”  —  Opera ,  V.  479. 

In  Sermon  270,  this  doctrine  is  repeated:  “Jesus  said  to  His 
disciples,  ‘  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?  ’  Peter  answered,  one  for 
the  rest,  one  for  all,  ‘  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God.’  ‘  Happy  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jona,  etc.’ ;  I  say  to  thee 
because  thou  hast  thus  spoken  of  Me,  thus  confessed  Me,  receive  a 
blessing :  thou  art  Petrus,  I  am  Petra  ;  Petra  is  not  from  Petrus , 
but  Petrus  from  Petra ,  just  as  Christian  is  not  from  Christ,  but 
Christ  from  Christian;  so  upon  this  petra  I  will  build  My  Church, 
not  upon  the  Petrus  which  thou  art,  but  upon  the  Petra  which  thou 
hast  confessed.  But  I  will  build  My  Church  ;  I  will  build  thee, 
who  by  this  confession  bearest  this  figure  of  the  Church,  i.e.  repre¬ 
sents  the  Church.” —  Opera ,  V.  12,  38,  39. 

Still  again,  in  Sermon  295,  we  have  this:  “Upon  this  Petra 
which  thou  hast  confessed,  upon  this  which  thou  hast  said,  ‘  Thou 
art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,’  I  will  build  My  Church,  for 
thou  art  Petrus ;  but  Petra  is  the  rock,  Christ,  from  which  Petrus 
is  derived.”  —  Opera,  V.  13,  48,  49. 

Of  a  work  extant,  which  St.  Augustine  wrote  against  an  epistle 
of  the  heretic  Donatus,  once  a  Bishop  at  Carthage,  the  author  says 
this  :  “In  this  work  I  said  of  the  Apostle  Peter,  that  upon  him,  as 
upon  Petra,  a  rock,  the  Church  was  founded  ;  which  meaning  is 
also  proclaimed  by  the  mouth  of  many  in  the  verses  of  the  most 
blessed  Ambrose,  where  he  speaks  of  the  cock  crowing  thus  :  ‘  This 
is  that  rock  of  the  Church  crowing  who  removes  sin.’  But  I 


THE  CHURCH. 


107 


law  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  Presbyterial  system 
of  Church  Organisation  is  a  modified  form  of  prelacy. 
Presbyter ,  as  Milton  perceived,  is  priest  writ  large. 
The  Presbyterial  invention  mediates  between  Epis¬ 
copacy  and  Congregationalism.  Like  all  forms  of 
Puritanism  and  Papacy,  it  is  substantially  a  survival 
of  Judaism.  It  appeals  to  the  synagogue.  One  with 
as  good  reason  could  appeal  from  Shakspere’s  Comedy 
of  Errors  to  Plautus’  Mencechmi.  For  Scriptural 
authority  this  system  has  selected  an  adverb  for  its 
foundation.1  Upon  such  a  foundation  can  Jerusalem 
be  built  as  a  city  that  is  at  unity  with  itself  ?  Method- 

remember  often  afterwards  I  thus  explained  what  the  Lord  said : 
‘  Thou  art  Peter,1  etc.  Which  is  to  be  understood  as  upon  that 
which  Peter  confessed,  ‘  Thou  art  the  Son  of  the  living  God,1  and 
thus  Peter,  so  called  after  that  rock,  or  petra,  representing  the  part 
of  the  Church  which  is  built  upon  this  rock,  and  received  the  key 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  For  it  is  not  said  to  him,  Thou  art 
Petra,  but  thou  art  Petrus.  But  Petra  is  Christ,  whom  Simon  has 
confessed  as  the  whole  Church  confesses  Him,  and  was  hence  called 
Peter.  But  which  of  these  two  opinions  is  the  more  probable  let 
the  reader  choose.”  —  Betractationes,  Lib.  I.  c.  21. 

Enough  of  this  dreary  stuff.  The  principal  presumption  in 
favour  of  St.  Peter  having  ever  visited  Rome  is  that  St.  Paul  is  so 
much  more  portentous  a  figure  that  there  must  have  been  some 
powerful  cause  why  Roman  tradition  did  not  settle  upon  him,  since 
also  there  is  no  question  that  he  resided  in  Rome. 

The  most  thorough  and  hitherto  unanswered  criticism  of  the 
pretension  of  the  papal  chair  to  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  as 
the  sole  condition  of  Church  unity,  will  be  found  in  Petrine  Claims 
at  the  Bar  of  History ,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  F.  Littledale. 

1  /xdXuTTa,  in  1  Tim.  v.  17. 


108 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ism  adopts  Episcopacy  as  a  form  of  Church  Govern¬ 
ment,  administers  it  like  the  Papacy,  and  uses  the 
Preshy terial  form  of  ministry.  For  Episcopal  Church 
Government  the  Protestant  Episcopalians  make  no 
actual  stand,  although  in  theory  they  are  stiff  for  it. 
We  Protestant  Episcopalians  are  practically  Congre- 
gationalists  slightly  ameliorated  by  prelacy.  There¬ 
fore  I  do  not  see  in  any  of  these  forms  of  ecclesiastical 
organisation  a  ground  promising  for  unity.  Congre¬ 
gationalism  is  the  despair  of  unity.  In  its  logical 
extreme  it  becomes  every  man  a  church  unto  himself. 
That  ultimate  being  reached,  a  fellowship  between 
churches  springs  up,  and  a  congregation  is  formed. 
The  Congregationalist  forgets  that  Christ  in  flesh 
and  in  Nature  has  a  method  of  selection.  For 
the  cause  of  unity  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
Congregationalism  excels  the  Papacy  in  speaking 
smooth  things  and  easy  to  understand. 

Shall  we  choose  either  autocracy  or  individualism  ? 
Ecclesiastical  Csesarism  or  the  Zeitgeist?  We  must 
go  further  on  before  deciding,  and  we  must  take  a 
retrospect  of  the  road  we  have  thus  far  travelled. 
While  the  soul  of  the  Church  is  a  kingdom,  the 
Church  is  not  an  autocracy.  Divine  sovereignty  and 
divine  immanence  imply  for  the  Church  elements 
both  monarchic  and  democratic,  and  these  are  not 
contradictory  the  one  of  the  other,  any  more  than 
divine  omnipotence  and  human  freedom.  For  divine 
sovereignty  does  not  necessarily  imply  divine  sepa- 


109 


r 


THE  CHURCH. 

ration.  The  Head  of  the  Church  is  Jesus  Christ,  not 
a  president  God,  as  the  Mormon  doctrine  says ;  nor 
does  He  reign  by  popular  suffrage,  as  we  sing  in  the 
hymn,  “  Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem,  and  crown 
Him  Lord  of  all.”  This  theory  fits  neatly  in  with 
that  speculation  about  the  universe,  wherein  Dr. 
Haeckel  talks  of  citizen  atoms  diffused  throughout 
space,  and  saying,  “  Go  to,  let  us  congregate  and 
see  if  anything  will  come  of  it.”  A  world  came  of 
it,  and  the  atoms  were  stupefied.  Nay,  but  in  Church 
as  in  world  laws  of  atoms  do  not  account  for  collo¬ 
cation  of  atoms.  These  things  convince  me  that 
Church  union  is  not  an  accomplished  fact.  Because 
of  schisms  from  the  day  of  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul, — 
because  of  varying  ideas  of  God  and  survivals  of  old 
folk-faith,  because  of  extreme  bondage  to  the  letter 
of  Scripture  and  creeds,  —  never  since  Pentecost  has 
the  Church  known  an  external  unity.  However,  the 
article  of  the  Creed  is  credible  if  we  mean  one  Lord, 
one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  the  Father  of  all, 
who  is  above  all,  through  all,  and  in  you  all.  And 
as  your  consciousness  of  Him  grows  more  vivid  you 
will  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  and  the  bond 
of  peace.  Therefore,  I  say  the  unity  of  the  Church 
is  the  goal  toward  which  it  moves,  the  process  of  its 
existence  until  God  shall  be  all  in  all.  Higher  criti¬ 
cism,  textual  criticism,  rational  theology,  and  theoso¬ 
phy  are  signs  of  a  movement  towards  unity  of  the 
spirit  which  lies  beneath  the  letter. 


110 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


b.  What  age  or  region  will  render  us  a  picture  of 
the  Church  holy  in  the  blameless  lives  of  all  its 
members?  Was  holiness  realised  in  the  Robber 
Synod,  or  in  the  brawls  between  the  blues  and  greens 
in  the  streets  of  orthodox  Byzantium?  Was  holiness 
resplendent  in  the  Nitrian  monks  who  with  oyster- 
shells  savagely  slew  the  maiden  Hypatia?  Is  holi¬ 
ness  exemplified  in  the  Albigensian  anomia,  and  the 
crusade  which  exterminated  it,  or  in  the  pornocracy 
of  Rome  ?  Shall  we  find  it  among  the  Anabaptists  of 
Munster,  or  in  the  Huguenot  craft  of  the  Condos,  or 
in  the  cold,  pitiless  righteousness  of  the  Laudians, 
or  in  the  brutality  of  Cromwell’s  men,  or  in  the  cruel 
intolerance  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony?  Were 
the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  shaking  his  fist  and  calling 
down  the  extreme  vengeance  of  God  upon  misbeliev¬ 
ers  whom  he  had  brought  to  the  scaffold,  and  Mistress 
Anne  Hutchinson,  with  her  inner  light  and  her  ungov¬ 
ernable  tongue,  fruits  of  the  holiness  of  the  Church  ? 
The  holiness  of  the  Church  was  not  more  marked 
before  the  Great  Schism  than  in  later  days.  Between 
orthodoxy  and  holiness  the  connection  is  not  clear ; 
but  I  am  far  from  sure  that  Protestantism,  higher 
criticism,  and  progressive  orthodoxy,  are  doing  much 
for  the  realisation  of  this  note  of  the  Church.  Per¬ 
haps.  For  in  the  present,  the  holiness  of  the  Church 
is  the  life  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  within  her,  and 
the  external  holiness  of  the  Church  consists  in  the 
realisation  of  the  Christ-life  in  her  individual  mem- 


THE  CHURCH. 


Ill 


bers.  It  lies  also  in  the  faith  or  propositions  of  truth 
which  may  be  comprehended  by  individual  members. 
But  it  does  not  lie  in  orthodoxy,  for  self-conscious 
orthodoxy  is  the  eighth  deadly  sin.  Holiness  lies  in 
the  faith  in  personal  righteousness  of  God  and  man, 
and  in  the  common  worship,  in  prayer,  in  the  Word, 
and  in  the  Sacraments.  It  is  both  outer  and  inner. 
The  holiness  of  the  Church  is  evidently  rather  a  goal 
than  a  starting-point.  She  begins  by  saying,  “Be¬ 
loved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God.1  She  seeks  by 
worship,  instruction,  and  sacraments  to  waken  the 
sense  of  this  divine  sonship,  in  order  that  she  may 
manifest  to  the  world  the  holiness  which  is  the  love, 
which  is  the  life,  which  is  the  power  of  God,  — 
namely,  God  Himself,  divine  grace.2  The  realisation 
of  the  holiness  of  the  Church  and  its  actualisation  is 
this :  to  serve  as  the  highest  expression  of  the  Soul 
of  the  world,  in  the  world  of  souls,  and  to  the  world 
of  souls. 

The  process  by  which  in  the  Church  the  individual 
soul  is  made  vitally  conscious  has  been  called  by 
various  names,  repentance,  conversion,  redemption, 
metanoia,  justification,  sanctification,  salvation,  and 
eternal  life.  The  distinctions  are  not  real ;  they 
belong  to  the  method  of  scholastic  theology.  Fun¬ 
damentally  they  are  one,  are  but  so  many  stages  of 
the  process  of  the  soul  in  becoming  Christ-like.  It 


1  1  John  iii.  2. 


2  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Summa ,  Ia.  viii.  3. 


112 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


is  a  process  of  growth,  of  development,  and  of  evolu¬ 
tion.  Of  this  process,  the  Sacraments  are  signs  and 
helps.  “  Covenant  sign  ”  does  not  exhaust  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  baptism  as  regeneration.  The  sign  stands  also 
for  a  growth  in  consciousness  of  holiness.  Because 
holy  baptism  represents  birth  out  of  an  old  environ¬ 
ment,  the  world  of  nature,  where  the  law  of  life  is 
self-interest,  into  a  new  environment,  the  Church, 
whose  law  is  unself,  it  is  therefore  a  baptism  unto 
repentance,  metanoia,  a  new  point  of  view  from 
which  to  survey  life.  We  are  baptised  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
not  as  by  a  magic  formula.  “  In  the  name,”  means 
into  the  character.  The  term  is  a  Hebrew  idiom. 
Baptism  u  in  the  name  ”  implies  an  intent  to  conform 
to  the  character  of  our  Father,  God,  our  Saviour, 
Christ,  and  our  life-giving  Spirit.  But  somehow  a 
survival  of  a  pre-Aryan  disposition  towards  magic, 
which  the  Babylonians  inherited  from  their  Ugrian 
predecessors,  we  also  have  inherited,  and  we  tend  to 
use  the  divine  name,  the  saving  name,  as  a  spell  to 
conjure  with,1  notwithstanding  that  the  Third  Com¬ 
mandment  expressly  forbade  such  a  use  of  the  name 
of  God. 

“  There  must  be  in  the  outward  sign  of  a  sacrament 
that  which  properly  represents  the  spiritual  operation 
of  the  sacrament,”  says  Aquinas  in  his  reasonable 

1  Keim,  Jesus  of  Nazcira,  V.  371,  explains  tlie  Hebraism,  “in 
the  name.’1 


THE  CHURCH. 


113 


fashion.1  The  sacrament  of  the  Holy  Communion, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  a  meal  in  common,  represents  first  of 
all  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  true  and 
only  feasible  brotherhood  of  man.2  The  table  of  the 
Lord  is  a  solution  of  many  of  the  social  difficulties  of 
the  present  day.  In  that  this  sacrament  shows  forth 
the  Lord’s  death,  it  stands  also  for  the  essential 
nature  of  righteousness  or  eternal  life,  which  is  self- 
sacrificing  love.  Of  this  the  Lord’s  death  was  the 
supreme  exponent  in  time,  of  the  inner  and  eternal 
operation  of  the  Living  God,  and  therefore  of  godly 
life.3  In  that  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  is  food,  it  sig¬ 
nifies  first  a  gift  of  God,  and  next  the  assimilation  and 
appropriation  of  the  divine  life  by  living  it.  In  this 
last  stage  of  significance  the  sacrament  represents  the 
union  of  the  soul  with  God.  The  symbol  ought  not 
to  be  taken  as  the  thing  symbolised.  In  short,  the 
holiness  of  the  Church  is  realised  in  the  measure  that 
we  accept  the  principle  of  unself  as  the  law  of  life ;  of 
unself,  I  mean,  not  as  the  end,  but  for  the  sake  of 
another.  This  is  the  foundation  of  the  corporate 
character  of  the  holiness  which  Christ  requires.  Un¬ 
self  as  an  end  in  itself  is  a  survival  or  revival  of 
Buddhistic  and  like  pagan  ideals. 

By  the  Holiness  is  meant  the  visible  manifestation 
of  the  result  of  the  redemptive  process,  whereby  the 

1  Summa ,  III.  lx.  3.  2  1  John  i.  7. 

3  Cf.  Sup.  p.  47,  evatpeca,  1  Tim.  ii.  2. 


114 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  of  His  Christ.  To  this  far-off  divine  event 
the  whole  creation  moves,  and  sin,  and  pain,  and  sor¬ 
row  are  spokes  in  the  vast  wheel  of  life.  The  Church 
is  the  ideal  of  the  world  in  its  evolution,  as  Jesus, 
God,  is  the  ideal  of  the  Church  in  its  growth  towards 
true  unity.  The  Church,  then,  is  the  highest  expo¬ 
nent  of  that  stage  we  have  reached  in  the  forward, 
upward  movement  we  call  the  cosmic  process,  the 
clearest  development  of  God-consciousness  in  the 
mind  of  humanity. 

c.  It  seems  difficult  in  these  days  to  get  any  defini¬ 
tion  of  Catholicity  upon  which  all  Christians  or  any 
considerable  majority  of  them  agree.1  Catholicity 
is  in  effect  the  password  of  some  kinds  of  Orthodoxy. 

1  When  Seymour  was  in  Rome  fifty  years  ago,  the  dignitaries  of 
the  Church  thought  surely  he  would  become  a  convert,  and  every 
morning  they  met  with  him  for  conversations  on  the  matter.  Their 
questions  and  answers  were  conducted  in  writing.  One  morning 
he  wrote  this  proposition :  The  Roman  Church  nowhere  declares 
herself  infallible.  He  met  with  vehement  denial ;  but  when  he 
required  an  authoritative  statement  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Roman 
Church,  the  cardinals  and  doctors  could  not,  he  tells  us,  produce  it. 
Years  after,  one  of  these  Roman  dignitaries  is  said  to  have  admitted 
(Capes,  To  Borne  ancl  Back )  that  they  had  always  received  un¬ 
questioned  the  infallibility  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  were 
astounded  when  after  the  carefullest  investigation  they  could  find 
no  authoritative  statement  of  it,  I  would  add  that  this  proposi¬ 
tion  had  been  formulated,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the 
theologians  who  conversed  with  Seymour  were  not  aware  of  the 
assertions  of  the  Bulls  of  the  Popes. 


THE  CHURCH. 


115 


For  of  Orthodoxy  there  is  more  than  one  sort. 
Catholicity  has  been  taken  to  mean  that  part  of  the 
Church  which  has  “  valid  orders  and  valid  sacra¬ 
ments,”  or  that  which  adheres  to  the  rule  of  The¬ 
ology  laid  down  by  the  first  six  or  seven  ecumenical 
councils,  or  that  which  holds  a  traditional  theology, 
as  for  instance  of  St.  Augustine,  or  that  which  is 
intellectually  broad  and  tolerant,  mystical  or  meta¬ 
physical,  rational  or  sceptical.  It  might  seem  that 
we  could  accept  some  one  of  these  positions,  such  is 
their  variety,  but  turn  the  theologic  tube  on  tube  of 
lens  critical  and  historical,  and  these  fixed  stars  of 
hope  are  blurred  to  mist.  It  is  not  so  easy  as  at  first 
blush  it  seems,  to  say  what  are  valid  orders,  and  valid 
sacraments,  and  who  have  them,  what  councils  were 
ecumenical,  and  what  Augustine  did  really  give  as 
the  residuum  of  his  doctrine  after  his  retractations. 
Indeed  we  cannot  always  understand  just  what  the 
Pope  means,  or  the  General  Assembly,  or  the  General 
Convention.  Duration  of  Time  and  extent  of  Space 
do  not  gauge  the  Church’s  Catholicity.  They  may  in 
those  years  when  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea,  but 
not  yesterday  and  not  to-day.  It  is  fine  to  say,  like 
the  late  Mr.  Arnold,  that  “  the  infallible  Church 
Catholic  is  really  the  prophetic  Soul  of  the  wide 
world  dreaming  of  things  to  come,  the  whole  human 
race  in  onward  progress,  discovering  truth  more 
complete  than  the  parcel  of  truth  any  momentary 


116 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


individual  man  may  seize."  The  charm  is  really  in 
the  ingenious  adaptation  of  the  beautiful  phrase  from 
Shakspere.  The  truth  of  the  definition  is  in  God’s 
cosmical  redemptive  process,  but  the  definition  itself 
does  not  exactly  express  our  Lord’s  doctrine  of  the 
Church.  It  is,  however,  true  that  the  Church  is  living 
as  the  tree  and  the  grain  of  mustard  seed,  because  its 
soul  is  the  Spirit  Who  maketli  alive.  It  is  the  Church 
of  the  Living  God,  and  there  is  no  really  assignable 
limit  to  the  growth  of  His  body  and  manifestation. 
Again,  if  by  the  infallible  Church  we  mean  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  Christendom,  we  mean  a  fact,  not  a 
dogma ;  and  this  is  all  there  is  of  truth  in  the  notion 
of  the  infallibility  of  the  Church.  It  is  the  utterance 
of  the  God-consciousness.  People  who  doubt  the  guid¬ 
ing  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  call  Him  Zeitgeist.  They  go 
back  to  ante-Nicene  days  to  find  evidences  of  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  for  them  He  is  now  virtually 
asleep  with  Brahm,  or  passive  in  Nirvana.  The 
appeal  to  antiquity  has  a  side  which  is  true,  but  when 
pressed  as  it  has  been,  is  like  asking  us  into  “  a  seed 
store  to  examine  the  beauty  of  a  flower  garden." 
Tertullian  was  right  when  he  said,  44  Wherever  are 
the  Three,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  there  is  the 
Church,  which  is  the  body  of  the  Three."  1  So  Cath¬ 
olicity  is  inclusive,  not  exclusive.  It  inheres  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God ;  that  is,  in  the  Infinite  God,  Who 
comprehends  and  includes  all  reality.  There  is  this 

1  De  Baptismo,  quoted  in  Pearson  on  tlie  Creed. 


THE  CHURCH. 


117 


potency,  this  ultimate  of  the  growth  of  the  Church, 
not  in  the  chair  of  Peter,  nor  in  an  Episcopacy,  nor  in 
an  accurate  form  of  doctrine,  nor  in  the  relation  of 
the  individual  with  Christ.  A  study  of  the  history 
of  dogma  shows  that  any  one  of  these  propositions  is 
a  theory  which  could  not  stand  the  test  of  controversy. 
In  one  sense,  present  and  visible,  the  Church  might 
be  called  Catholic ;  that  is,  in  its  adaptability  to  all 
nations  and  all  times.  In  so  far  as  it  has  received 
the  true  Idea  of  God  it  is  differentiated  from  all 
ethnic  religions  and  therefore  is  universal. 

d.  The  Church  is  apostolic  if  it  continue  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  apostles.  By  the  doctrine  of  the 
apostles  I  do  not  exactly  mean  their  limited  state¬ 
ments  or  formulas  of  divine  truth  and  their  incom¬ 
pletely  developed  consciousness  of  God.  As  Hooker 
says,  “We  must  note  that  he  that  affirmeth  speech 
to  be  necessary  among  all  men  throughout  the  world 
doth  not  thereby  import  that  all  men  must  speak 
necessarily  one  kind  of  language.  Even  so,  the 
necessity  of  polity  and  regiment  in  all  churches  may 
be  held,  without  holding  any  one  certain  form  to  be 
necessary  for  them  all.” 1  No  doubt  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
still  guiding  the  Church ;  nor  did  He  cease  with  the 
Church  of  the  apostles,  of  the  isapostolic  fathers,  with 
the  Nicene  Council,  with  the  Second  Council  of  Con¬ 
stantinople,  with  Augustine,  with  Aquinas,  with  Lu¬ 
ther,  or  with  Hooker  or  with  Pusey  or  with  Pearson 


1  Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.  III.  2. 


118 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


on  the  Creed,  or  with  Browne  on  the  Articles.  As  God 
is  a  living  God,  the  Church,  His  Body,  lives,  develops, 
differentiates  in  comprehension  and  in  statement  of 
truth.  By  the  side  of  natural  evolution  in  the  world  is 
supernatural  evolution  in  the  Church.  The  cosmical 
and  ecclesiastical  processes  illustrate  one  another. 
What  is  developed  from  apostolic  germinal  idea 
belongs  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  and 
the  fundamental  and  grand  all-embracing  idea  which 
we  get  from  the  apostolic  writings  is  that  of  the 
immanent  Triune. 

Apostolicity  has  been  made  to  inhere  in  Apostolic 
Succession.  This  theory,  Hallam  says,  began  to  be 
urged  about  the  end  of  Elizabeth’s  reign.1  In  one 
sense  the  theory  is  true,  and  in  another  it  is  false. 
Bishop  Hall  distinguished  when  he  wrote,  “  How  fain 
would  you  here  find  me  in  a  contradiction.  While 
I  onewhere  reckon  Episcopacy  among  matters  essen¬ 
tial  to  the  Church,  and  otherwhere  deny  it  to  be  of  the 
essence  thereof !  Wherein  you  willingly  hide  your 
eyes  that  you  may  not  see  the  distinction  which  I 
make  expressly  between  the  being  and  well  being  of 
a  Church.  ...  No,  brethren,  to  hold  their  discipline 
altogether  essential  to  the  very  being  of  the  Church, 
we  dare  not  be  so  zealous.”  2  Appeal  has  been  made 
to  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Clement  to  show  the  con¬ 
necting  link  between  the  apostles  and  fathers  on 

1  Cf.  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Works,  II.  5,  14. 

2  Bishop  Hall,  Works,  IX.  690. 


THE  CHURCH. 


119 


this  subject.  But  Clement1  says  nothing  more  than 
that  the  apostles,  foreseeing  strife  about  the  office 
of  oversight  in  the  Church,  appointed  whom  they 
thought  worthy  to  succeed  them,  and  left  instructions 
that  when  these  died  other  approved  men  should 
succeed  them  in  the  ministry.  Consequently,  says 
he,  our  blame  is  great  “  if  we  eject  from  the  Episco¬ 
pate  those  who  have  blamelessly  and  liolily  fulfilled 
its  duties.”  St.  Clement  says  nothing  of  a  tactual 
succession,  nothing  of  the  grace  of  Orders.  He  is 
speaking  in  the  interest  of  orderliness  and  tranquillity, 
and  of  continuance  in  Episcopal  office  of  men  once 
placed  therein.  St.  Irenaeus  also  is  invoked  to  give 
testimony  in  the  same  favour,  but  he  speaks  of  the 
succession  of  the  ministry  only  as  being  a  witness  to 
those  doctrines  of  the  Church  which  had  from  the 
apostles  been  handed  down.  The  Apostolic  Suc¬ 
cession  may  be  true  as  a  fact  in  history  —  it  cannot 
be  disproved ;  but  is  a  Scotch  verdict  in  its  favour 
enough  to  warrant  the  uprearing  upon  it  of  a  vast 
sacramental  system  ?  The  Assyrian  when  he  would 
represent  the  grace  of  god  in  the  sky  towards  men 
on  earth,  depicted  ropes  hanging  down  from  the 
symbol  of  the  god.  This  answers  to  a  popular  con¬ 
ception  of  grace,  to  a  notion  which  is  profoundly 
materialistic.  A  widely  prevalent  theory  of  the  Sac¬ 
raments  is  inhaled  with  the  materialistic  atmosphere 
which  we  breathe.  A  sceptical  friend  once  asked 

1 1.  44. 


i 


120 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


me,  “Why  are  the  clergy  so  materialistic?”  This 
cruder  theory  of  grace  and  of  the  Sacraments  will  not 
lack  traditional  authority  nor  a  long  catena  patrum , 
nor  tha  pat  simile  of  grace  flowing  through  the  Sacra¬ 
ments  as  gas  through  the  gas-pipes,  or,  at  any  rate,  as 
electricity  along  the  wires. 

The  theory  of  transubstantiation  is  a  survival  of 
fetishism.  I  recognise  that  the  dominant  theolog¬ 
ical  thought  is  consonant  with  the  materialistic 
tone  of  the  age,  and  every  day  it  is  becoming  more 
popular;  but  is  it  true?  Is  not  this  whole  theory 
of  tactual  Succession  and  sacramental  system  built 
thereon,  like  a  vast  pyramid  resting  upon  its  apex? 
To  what  did  the  bishops  succeed  from  the  apostles  ? 
You  recollect  how,  when  Aquinas  went  to  Rome,  the 
Pope  showed  to  him  all  its  splendour  and  opulence, 
and  remarked,  “  Brother  Thomas,  if  Peter  was  forced 
to  say,  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none,  his  successors  are 
not  obliged  to  say  so.”  —  “  No,”  answered  Aquinas, 
“  neither  can  his  successors  say,  I  say  unto  thee  arise 
and  walk.” 

I  need  not  apologise  for  quoting  in  this  place  and 
at  some  length  the  words  of  the  Bishop  of  Central 
New  York.  They  represent  a  reasonable  phase  of 
present-day  ecclesiastical  opinion.  Bishop  Hunting- 
ton  we  recognise  as  one  of  the  most  open-minded 
and  thoughtful  of  our  House  of  Bishops  :  “We  have 
on  hand  two  theories  of  the  Episcopate  as  to  its 
working.  They  should  be  discriminated,  and  each 


THE  CHURCH. 


121 


should  be  held  in  view  in  discussions  about  small 
dioceses  and  multiplied  bishops.  Otherwise,  senti¬ 
ment  will  take  the  place  of  wisdom,  and  mistakes 
may  be  made  which  it  will  not  be  easy  to  correct. 
On  the  one  hand  is  the  idea  that  the  bishop  is  not 
only  the  chief  pastor  in  some  real  sense,  and  Pastor 
Pastorum ,  of  the  diocese,  but  is  in  direct  and  inti¬ 
mate  pastoral  relations  with  the  laity  in  all  the  con¬ 
gregations.  This,  or  something  like  it,  is  loosely  in 
the  notions  of  many  advocates  of  Episcopal  multi¬ 
plication.  Two  results  would  be  unavoidable.  Dio¬ 
ceses  conducted  in  that  way  cannot  include  more 
than  thirty  or  forty  congregations,  whether  parishes 
or  missions,  at  the  utmost,  unless  human  capacities 
and  endowments  are  stretched  beyond  human  pre¬ 
cedent.  Secondly,  the  prerogative,  authority,  official 
importance,  and  self-direction  of  the  priest  and  pas¬ 
tor,  whom  we  now  call  the  rector,  must  be  abridged 
and  curtailed  to  whatever  extent  the  theory  which 
makes  the  diocese  a  modern  Parochia  is  carried  out. 
Then  rectoral  distinctions  will  be  in  large  part  trans¬ 
ferred  to  the  bishop.  It  is  he  who  directs,  leads, 
decides,  in  all  parish  affairs.  Guilds,  societies,  choirs, 
plans  of  work  for  both  sexes,  young  and  old,  ser¬ 
vices,  ritual  peculiarities,  will  be  appointed  and  con¬ 
trolled  by  the  bishop.  Presbyters  are  his  assistants 
or  agents,  and  he  entrusts  them  with  more  or  less 
power  and  liberty,  according  to  his  disposition  and 
views.  Human  nature  is  not  to  be  made  over  to 


122 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


accommodate  an  ecclesiastical  experiment.  Where 
all  this  is  understood  and  prepared  for,  where  the 
clergy  are  trained  and  ordained  and  used  to  it,  it 
may  work  admirably.  That  it  would  work  without 
some  friction  and  some  strain  in  a  generation  accus¬ 
tomed  to  a  different  regime  is  not  at  all  certain. 
Two  heads  are  not  a  physiological  or  an  adminis¬ 
trative  convenience.  In  time,  the  diocese  would 
come  to  have  a  uniform  ecclesiastical  type  and  colour. 
Clergy  not  in  agreement  with  the  bishop  ecclesias¬ 
tically  or  theologically  would  find  it  agreeable  to 
retire.  Reliance  upon  official  suasion  or  personal 
magnetism,  in  such  a  condition,  would  prove,  at  try¬ 
ing  emergencies,  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  In  ritual 
there  would  be  in  time  diocesan  4  Uses  ’  sharply 
defined.  I  am  not  now  arguing  for  or  against  this 
system,  or  conjecturing  whether  it  is  what  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Church  desires,  but  am  trying  to  state  what,  as 
it  appears  to  me,  this  system  would  inevitably  bring 
forth.  It  would  enlarge  the  House  of  Bishops  four¬ 
fold,  and  the  control  of  the  bishop  over  the  rector 
in  parochial  details  in  much  the  same  proportion. 

“  The  other  conception  of  this  office  is  substantially 
that  which  has  prevailed  among  us  hitherto,  and  pre¬ 
vails  now.  I  say  substantially,  because  there  is  no 
fixed  standard  with  which  the  varying  notions  about 
it,  floating  in  divers  minds,  can  be  compared.  The 
office  itself  admits  of  widely  different  degrees  of 


THE  CHURCH. 


123 


activity  and  efficiency,  according  to  the  gifts,  accom¬ 
plishments,  and  energy  of  the  man  who  holds  it. 
Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  range  and  limits  of  its  proper 
functions  are  fairly  understood.  The  bishop  ordains 
and  sometimes  institutes  the  clergy,  attends  by  letter 
or  in  person  to  their  call,  settlement,  removal,  and 
transfer ;  receives  their  requests,  complaints,  and  in¬ 
quiries,  and  other  communications ;  visits  them  and 
their  families  pastorally;  consults  with  them  after 
their  difficulties  and  necessities.  He  examines,  re¬ 
ceives,  directs,  and  often  assists  candidates  for  Holv 
Orders,  in  many  cases  personally  instructing  them 
and  providing  for  their  expenses.  He  has  to  do  with 
the  erection  and  form  of  many  church  buildings,  the 
care  and  title  of  the  property,  and  sometimes  the  in¬ 
surance,  frequently  assists  in  obtaining  the  means  to 
build,  is  apt  to  lay  the  corner-stone,  and  consecrates 
or  opens  the  edifice.  He  confirms  candidates  once 
a  year  in  public  and  private,  throughout  the  diocese. 
In  special  emergencies,  or  with  the  good-will  of  the 
rector,  he  sometimes  renders  the  offices  of  baptism, 
marriage,  and  burial.  He  adjusts  differences  arising 
among  parishes  and  ministers,  he  decides  cases  of  dis¬ 
agreement  by  the  interpretation  of  Church-law  or  by 
arbitration,  acting  judicially.  He  is  called  to  organise 
or  initiate  general  charities,  guilds,  societies,  benevo¬ 
lent  work  in  Church-houses,  or  to  preach  at  their  anni¬ 
versaries.  In  our  theory,  whatever  our  practice,  the 


124 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


three  Orders  are  well  defined,  as  well  with  respect  to 
their  rights  as  their  duties.”  1 

Such  being  the  practical  condition  of  things  in 
this  Church,  shall  we  take  up  the  words  of  Bishop 
Andrews,  “  Though  our  government  be  of  divine 
right ,  it  follows  not  that  a  church  cannot  stand  with¬ 
out  it.  He  must  needs  be  stone-blind  that  sees  not 
churches  standing  without  it.”  Or  the  words  of 
Hooker,  “Unto  the  complete  form  of  Church  pol¬ 
ity  much  may  be  requisite  that  the  Scripture  teacheth 
not,  and  much  that  it  hath  taught  become  unrequisite, 
sometime  because  we  need  not  use  it,  sometime  be¬ 
cause  we  cannot.  In  which  respect,  for  mine  own 
part,  although  I  see  that  certain  Reformed  Churches, 
the  Scottish  especially  and  the  French,  have  not  that 
which  best  agreeth  with  Sacred  Scripture,  I  mean  the 
Government  that  is  by  Bishops,  inasmuch  as  both  these 
Churches  are  fallen  under  a  different  kind  of  Regi¬ 
ment;  which  to  remedy  it  is  for  the  one  altogether 
too  late,  and  too  soon  for  the  other,  during  their  pres¬ 
ent  affliction  and  trouble:  this  their  defect  and  im¬ 
perfection  I  had  rather  lament  in  such  case  than 
exagitate,  considering  that  men  oftentimes,  without 
any  fault  of  their  own,  may  be  driven  to  want  that 
kind  of  Politie  or  Regiment  which  is  best ;  and  to 
content  themselves  with  that  which  either  the  irre- 

1  The  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Huntington,  Address  to  the  Diocesan  Con¬ 
vention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Cen¬ 
tral  New  Yoi%  1880. 


THE  CHURCH. 


125 


mediable  error  of  former  time,  or  the  necessity  of  the 
present,  hath  cast  upon  them.”  1 

If  we  cannot  find  any  statement  or  assertion  of  a 
tactual  succession  in  the  Anglican  Articles  of  Religion, 
if  it  was  not  held  by  the  English  reformers,  nor  in¬ 
sisted  upon  by  Cosin,  or  Jewell,  or  Andrews,  or  Hall, 
or  Whitgift,  or  even  by  Saravia,  then  shall  we  hold  it 
to  be  essential  to  the  being  of  a  church?  Nay,  we 
should  in  that  case  out-herod  Herod  in  our  exactions, 
we  should  go  beyond  the  Roman  Church ;  for  it  is 
well  known  that  in  the  reigns  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
in  the  propositions  which  Rome  made  for  the  “recon¬ 
ciliation  ”  of  the  English  Church,  there  was  no  require¬ 
ment  that  the  clergy  should  be  reordained,2  and  yet 
we  know  quite  well,  as  Keble  tells  us,3  that  “  numbers 
had  been  admitted  into  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
with  no  better  than  Presbyterian  ordination.”  Since 
the  Church  was  instituted  and  constituted  together, 
the  order  of  the  ministry  must  be  held  as  of  its  integ¬ 
rity  rather  than  of  its  essence,  and  in  this  sense  we 

1  Hooker,  Eccl.  Pol.  III.  11.  It  should  be  recollected  that  the 
seventh  book  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  as  we  have  it,  was  not 
written  in  full  by  Master  Richard  Hooker,  but  was  written  from 
notes  some  sixty  years  after  his  death.  The  seventh  book  should 
therefore  be  interpreted  in  conformity  with  the  preceding  part  of 
the  work,  and  not  the  first  six  books,  so  that  they  may  agree  with 
the  seventh.  Whoever  manipulated  the  notes  of  the  seventh  book 
was  not  precisely  of  the  mind  of  the  judicious  Hooker. 

2  Courayer,  Validity  of  English  Ordinations,  234  ff.,  323. 

3  Introduction  to  Hooker’s  Works. 


126 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


may  understand  the  words  of  the  seventh  book  of 
Hooker’s  Ecclesiastical  Polity :  “  There  may  be  some¬ 
times  very  just  and  sufficient  reason  to  allow  ordina¬ 
tion  made  without  a  bishop.  The  whole  Church 
visible  being  the  true  original  subject  of  all  power,  it 
hath  not  ordinarily  allowed  any  other  than  bishops 
alone  to  ordain.  Howbeit,  as  the  ordinary  course  is 
ordinarily  in  all  things  to  be  observed,  so  it  may  be  in 
some  cases  not  unnecessary  that  we  decline  from  the 
ordinary  ways.  —  And  therefore  we  are  not  simply  to 
urge  a  lineal  descent  of  power  from  the  apostles,  by 
continual  succession  of  bishops,  in  every  effectual 
ordination.” 

We  may  well  ask  what  is  taken  as  the  sign  of  the 
apostolicity  of  this  Episcopal  Church.  Surely  the 
“  greater  works  ”  are  not  visibly  performed  in  these 
post-apostolic  days.  Do  we  lay  the  sick  where  the 

shadow  of  the  Bishop  of - may  fall  upon  them  as 

he  passes  by  ?  Do  we  bring  handkerchiefs  and  nap¬ 
kins  from  the  Bishop  of - to  heal  the  sick  ?  Has 

the  Bishop  of - the  unique  power  to  deliver  over 

one  bound  unto  Satan?  If,  then,  the  tremendous 
assumption  of  such  a  succession  of  ministry  as  shall 
serve  for  an  unbroken  conduit  for  a  substantial  force 
called  grace  gives  no  sign  of  itself,  in  gifts  of  healing 
and  tongues,  in  the  immediate  evangelisation  of  the 
world,  and  in  the  conviction  of  the  human  heart,  or 
in  any  other  mighty  work,  we  may  well  ask  ourselves 
if  it  be  necessary  to  hold  to  tactual  succession  and 


THE  CHURCH. 


127 


substantial  grace,  and  if  we  do,  what  is  the  practical 
outcome  ?  These  theories,  it  is  true,  have  been  held 
by  good  men,  and  I  suppose  still  may  be  held,  but  no 
kite  of  a  theological  formula  should  draw  theories  from 
the  upper  air  of  speculation  down  into  a  statement 
of  creed.  The  one  theory,  of  the  ministry,  demands 
the  other,  of  Sacraments,  —  and  both  are  without  a 
scrap  of  external  testimony.1  But  Apostolic  Succes¬ 
sion,  as  a  sign  of  the  historic  continuity  of  the  Church 
and  of  its  form  of  organisation,  cannot  be  denied  to 
be  a  matter  of  fact  in  history.  No  better  method 
could  be  conceived  of  preserving  this  sign  of  conti¬ 
nuity  than  by  the  ceremony  of  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  If  the  Church  inheres  in  a  hierarchy,  pres- 
byterial,  episcopal,  or  papal,  then  Biblical  Theology 
must  be  ignored,  History  must  be  ignored,  the 
phenomena  of  deep  spiritual  life  in  the  dissenting 
churches  must  be  ignored.  Finally,  if  this  theory  be 
true,  the  late  Dr.  Newman  was  perfectly  consistent  in 
transferring  his  allegiance  from  the  Bishop  of  Oxford 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  Bishop  of  Bishops;  be¬ 
cause  a  hierarchy  instituted  and  constituted  in  and 
by  itself  as  the  head  of  the  Church  and  the  source  of 
its  religious  life  must  be  like  shamanism,  and  the 
Roman  hierarchy  a  survival  of  shamanism. 

1  Episcopacy  cannot  be  set  off  by  itself  as  an  organisation  or  a 
conduit  through  which  grace  flows.  If  in  any  way  the  validity  of 
the  Sacraments  depends  upon  Apostolic  Succession,  it  is  only  sec¬ 
ondarily,  and  because  Episcopacy  is  of  the  integrity  of  the  Church. 
I  do  not  say  of  the  essence.  Of  this  integrity  the  laying  on  of 
hands  is  a  visible  sign. 


128 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


This  section  I  will  conclude  with  weighty  words 
from  Professor  Shields,  of  Princeton,  writing  on  the 
relation  of  the  Apostolicity  to  the  Unity  and  Catho¬ 
licity  of  the  Church.  “  But  what  is  the  Historic 
Episcopate?  It  may  mean  very  much  or  very  little, 
according  to  its  definition  ;  and"  its  definition  will  be 
full  or  meagre,  according  to  our  point  of  view.  At 
present  we  can  only  view  it  in  its  external  relations, 
as  a  Christian  institution  appearing  among  other 
Christian  institutions  and  organisations.  I  do  not  here 
pretend  to  define  it  per  se  as  an  ecclesiastical  dogma; 
much  less  to  give  an  inside  view  of  its  powers  and 
effects  upon  those  who  devoutly  receive  it.  I  shall 
aim  at  a  little  more  than  a  verbal  definition  of  the 
phrase  itself.  Christianity  is  historic.  It  has  had 
organic  life  and  growth  from  the  beginning.  It  was 
more  than  mere  sentiment  or  doctrine.  It  was  a 
Church  as  well  as  a  gospel.  It  has  ever  been  visibly 
organised  with  fixed  institutions  pre-existing  from 
age  to  age  until  the  present  time.  Among  these 
institutions  is  the  historic  Episcopate.  Thus  viewed, 
it  may  be  defined  negatively  and  then  more  posi¬ 
tively.  .  .  .  As  we  pass  to  a  positive  definition  or 
description  we  shall  see  still  more  clearly  how  com¬ 
prehensive  is  this  great  Christian  institution.  Not 
only  did  its  original  structure  involve  congregational 
and  presbyterial  elements,  synagogues,  and  elders,  as 
well  as  bishops,  but  its  historic  growth  has  pervaded 
the  whole  Christian  world.  As  instituted  at  first  by 


THE  CHURCH. 


129 


our  Lord  Himself  in  the  work  of  the  apostles,  they 
exemplified  it  in  their  acts  and  epistles,  while  plant¬ 
ing  and  training  the  first  parishes  and  presbyteries. 
Thenceforward,  it  extended  over  the  entire  Church, 
through  the  centuries  before  the  Council  of  Nice. 
After  the  great  schism  it  was  continued  in  both  the 
eastern  and  western  sections  of  Christendom  until 
the  Reformation.  At  the  present  day  on  its  Catholic 
side,  as  maintained  in  the  Old  World,  it  embraces  the 
ecclesiastical  principle  of  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  and 
the  Anglican  Churches  ;  while  on  its  Protestant  side, 
as  developed  in  the  New  World,  it  has  also  em¬ 
braced  the  ecclesiastical  principles  of  the  Lutheran, 
the  Reformed,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Methodist,  the 
Congregational,  the  Baptist,  churches.  It  has  em¬ 
braced  them  actually,  if  not  consciously  or  avowedly. 
Without  sacrificing  the  Episcopal  principle,  it  has 
incorporated  the  Presbyterial  principle  in  diocesan 
conventions  and  standing  committees,  and  the  Con¬ 
gregational  principle  in  free  parishes  and  vestries. 
As  good  Congregationalism  and  as  sound  Presbyteri¬ 
anism  can  be  found  inside  the  American  Episcopate 
as  outside  it.  And  could  our  various  congregational 
and  presbyterial  denominations  now  come  together 
under  the  same  stringent  and  elastic  bond,  through 
bishops  of  their  own  choice,  witli  their  creeds  and 
usages  untouched,  they  would  do  no  violence  to  their 
respective  missions  in  this  new  age  and  country.  No 
other  Church  system  is  at  once  so  large  and  cohesive. 


130 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Not  the  congregational,  because  of  its  localising  ten¬ 
dency  and  inorganic  state ;  not  the  presbyterial, 
because  of  its  brittle  fragments  and  lack  of  central¬ 
ising  force ;  not  the  episcopal  alone  without  the  con¬ 
gregational  and  presbyterial  institutions,  with  which 
it  must  ever  be  in  living  connection.  The  three  ele¬ 
ments  as  fitly  joined  in  one  organism  make  an  ideal 
unity ;  and  it  is  a  unity  which  might  become  actual. 
At  the  centre  of  our  divided  and  distracted  Chris¬ 
tianity  we  have  before  our  eyes  the  spectacle  of 
Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  and  Congregationalists, 
in  all  but  the  name  loyally  held  together  in  the 
catholic  faith  of  Christendom.” 

Because  the  Church  is  living,  is  dynamic,  not 
static,  its  characteristics,  Unity,  Catholicity,  Sanc¬ 
tity,  and  Apostolicity  are  forces  rather  than  aspects, 
are  operations  rather  than  results.  They  cannot  be 
photographed,  even  in  spirit  pictures.  They  cannot 
be  measured  by  rule  or  weighed  in  a  balance.  Life 
submits  to  none  of  these  tests ;  they  are  forms  of  the 
Living  One  in  His  manifestation.  If  men  endeavour 
to  force  one  of  these  notes,  invariably  they  silence 
another.  Press  Unity,  and  you  destroy  Catholicity  ; 
exact  tests  of  Holiness,  and  you  destroy  Unity; 
require  formal  Apostolicity,  and  you  run  the  risk  of 
silencing  the  note  of  Holiness.  They  are  notes  of 
the  tones  which  God  sounds,  not  men.  It  is  the 
persistence  of  the  temper  of  primitive  culture  which 
demands  mechanical  means  of  union  with  God, 


THE  CHURCH. 


131 


which,  conceiving  of  Him  afar  off  in  space,  strives 
to  construct  for  Him  a  substitute  here  on  earth. 
It  is  not  the  doctrine  of  earliest  Christianity,  and 
though  it  were,  it  is  not  true. 

VI.  If  we  desire  to  teach  the  one  Holy  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Church,  I  believe  we  shall  do  better 
to  study  the  Christendom  of  the  nineteenth  century 
than  that  before  the  great  schism.  As  that  sound 
old  seventeenth  century  divine,  Jeremy  Taylor,  said 
in  one  of  his  sermons,  “  From  every  sect  and  com¬ 
munity  of  Christians  take  anything  that  is  good,  that 
advances  holy  religion,  and  the  divine  honour ;  for 
one  hath  a  better  government,  a  second  a  better  con¬ 
fession,  a  third  hath  excellent  spiritual  arts  for  the 
conduct  of  souls,  a  fourth  hath  fewer  errours,  and  by 
what  instrument  soever  a  holy  life  is  advantaged,  use 
that  though  thou  grindest  thy  spears  and  arrows  at 
the  forges  of  the  Philistines  ;  knowing  thou  hast  no 
master  but  Christ,  no  religion  but  the  Christian, 
no  rule  but  the  Scriptures,  and  the  laws  and  right 
reason,  other  things  that  are  helps  are  to  be  used 
accordingly.”  1  The  Unitarians  stand  for  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  humaneness  in  Christianity,  and  this  is  the 
profounclest  significance  of  the  Incarnation.  For  the 
more  part  they  dissent  from  our  dogma,  and  not 
from  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  They  also 
demand  that  their  hope  should  be  reasonable,  relig¬ 
ious,  and  holy.  If  we  would  break  down  the  middle 

1  Christian  Prudence ,  Works,  II.  287. 


132 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


wall  of  partition  between  us,  we  must  emphasise  this 
principle.  The  Presbyterians  stand  for  the  principle 
of  personal  righteousness.  Let  us  heed  their  cry. 
The  Baptists  demand  a  reality  of  religious  life  and 
consciousness  corresponding  to  the  sacramental  sym¬ 
bols.  Be  not  heedless  of  their  witness.  The  Metho¬ 
dists  stand  for  the  principle  of  a  religion  of  the 
affections,  and  if  they  went  out  from  us,  it  may  be 
that  we  are  lacking  in  this  element  of  our  teaching. 
The  Congregationals,  or  Independents,  stand  for 
personal  freedom  in  religious  thought  and  ecclesi¬ 
astical  organisation,  and  this  gift  of  God  we  may  deny 
no  man.  We  need  also  to  regard  the  growth  of  Free 
Masonry  and  kindred  orders,  of  Societies  of  Ethical 
Culture,  of  Secularism  in  all  its  shapes,  of  Socialism, 
and  of  the  Press ;  and  we  should  carefully  consider 
and  reflect  whether  their  existence  and  influence  be 
not  due  to  something  which  the  Church  has  left 
undone.  I  say  again  that  the  Theology  which  you 
here  learn  is  necessary  to  your  ministerial  function, 
but  you  must  digest  it  and  reduce  it  to  practice  in 
religion  and  religious  teaching.  Convert  your  theol¬ 
ogy  into  sociology. 

Thus  far  my  purpose  has  been  to  demonstrate  that 
the  true  idea  of  God  is  the  idea  of  Infinite  Immanent 
Love,  that  the  Church  is  in  some  special  way  the 
manifestation  or  utterance  of  that  Immanent  Love, 
which  is  Life.  At  no  time  more  than  the  present 
does  the  world  demand  that  the  Church  shall  fulfil 


THE  CHURCH. 


133 


truly  her  function  as  the  organon  of  God.  First  of 
all,  then,  the  utterance  of  the  Church  to  the  World  is 
that  human  life  in  all  its  ways  should  be  conformed 
to  the  Divine  Life.  Now  clearly,  in  that  life  there 
is  no  room  for  the  principle  of  self-interest  however 
enlightened.  There  is  no  room  for  competition  and 
covetousness  as  the  law  of  trade ;  there  is  no  room 
for  social  caste  and  separation.  The  social  problems 
of  the  age  call  for  your  most  earnest  attention ;  the 
solution  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  your  Theology. 
All  the  works  of  human  life,  even  buying  and  sell¬ 
ing,  employment  and  labour,  should  be  sacraments 
of  human  brotherhood.  Nowhere  in  the  life  of  God, 
as  revealed  in  the  earth-life  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
was  there  a  single  enunciation  of  the  law  of  self- 
interest  and  of  social  separation,  as  a  religious  or 
economic  motive.  Nowhere  in  the  Beatitudes  is 
there  a  word  concerning  privileged  classes  and  supe¬ 
rior  natures.  If,  then,  there  be  one  thing  which  the 
Church  must  take  as  its  message  from  the  very  heart 
of  God  to  the  men  of  the  world,  it  is  the  principle  of 
love,  self-sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  another,  as  the  very 
condition  of  political,  economic,  and  personal  right¬ 
eousness.  You  are  not  to  be  ordained  to  get  good 
parishes.  The  world  to-day,  if  ever,  demands  moral 
heroism  in  the  pulpit.  In  your  hands  is  given  the 
power  of  the  keys.  Whenever  you  console  a  grief, 
lessen  a  pain,  elect  a  good  magistrate,  make  a  salu¬ 
tary  law,  or  a  good  sewer,  you  open  the  kingdom  of 


134 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


heaven  to  those  in  misery  and  pain.  Shall  the  Church 
drop  her  keys  of  the  kingdom  into  the  hands  of  Henry 
George,  Frances  Willard,  and  General  Booth?  The 
Church  needs  men  who  submit  themselves  to  be  re¬ 
ceptive  of  the  Divine,  and  to  fearlessly  utter  His  mes¬ 
sage.  It  needs  men  who  are  willing,  at  the  price  of  a 
momentary  unpopularity,  to  rebuke  greed,  heartless¬ 
ness,  and  self-will  in  the  guise  of  Christianity.  It 
needs  men  who  are  able  to  inspire  our  social  and  po¬ 
litical  conditions  with  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  Life. 
It  will  be  your  duty  to  teach  the  world  that  the  good 
Lord  Jesus  has  not  had  His  day,  but  that  it  is  coming, 
as  Tennyson  truly  says.  Although  it  may  seem  little, 
yet  we  ought  to  be  exultantly  thankful  that  we  can 
say  it,  Christianity,  the  Church,  has  up  to  the  present 
time  made  a  good  beginning  in  this  world.  In  gen¬ 
eral,  the  God-consciousness  of  Christian  men  is  but 
just  awakening,  dogma  is  becoming  ethical.  When 
we  learn  to  look  beneath  the  letter  to  the  spirit 
which  is  veritas ,  then  schism  will  cease.  When  we 
recognise  that  all  authority  lies  in  truth,  in  reality, 
and  not  in  Bible,  tradition,  hierarchy,  or  any  stan¬ 
dard  external  to  itself,  then  will  the  Unity  and  the 
rest  of  the  notes  of  the  Church  begin  to  be  actualised 
in  the  world  of  Time.  Then  shall  the  Word  of  God 
be  distinctly  syllabled  through  and  to  humanity,  and 
then  shall  we  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  the  true 
“  Peace  of  the  Church.” 


THE  CHURCH. 


135 


u  Peace  beginning  to  be 
Deep  as  the  sleep  of  the  sea 
When  the  stars  their  faces  glass 
In  its  blue  tranquillity  : 

Hearts  of  men  upon  earth, 

Never  once  still  from  their  birth, 

To  rest  as  the  wild  waters  rest 

With  the  colours  of  Heaven  on  their  breast! 

“  Love,  which  is  sunlight  of  Peace, 

Age  by  age  to  increase 

Till  angers  and  hatreds  are  dead, 

And  sorrow  and  death  shall  cease  : 

1  Peace  on  earth  and  good-will !  ’ 

Souls  that  are  gentle  and  still 
Hear  the  first  music  of  this 
Far-off,  infinite  bliss  !  ” 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


He  who  has  yielded  to  temptation  may  indeed,  by  the  repentant 
feeling  of  which  prayer  is  the  expression,  secure  himself  from 
further  yielding ;  but  the  tendency  toward  loss  of  self-control, 
initiated  by  the  first  surrender,  cannot  be  rendered  non-existent  by 
any  ex  post  facto  act  of  contrition,  though  its  operation  may  be 
counteracted.  And  if  the  misdeed,  as  usually  happens,  has  involved 
others  than  the  agent,  its  evil  consequences  must  endure  and  ramify, 
until  they  at  last  disappear  through  some  natural  process  of  equili¬ 
bration.  No  amount  of  repentance  for  lying  can  deprive  lies  of 
their  tendency  to  weaken  the  mutual  confidence  of  men  and  thus 
to  dissolve  society.  No  penance  or  priestly  absolution  can  do  away 
with  the  persistence  of  force. 

Fiske,  Cosmic  Philosophy,  II.  464. 

I  think  this  is  the  authentic  sign  and  seal 
Of  Godship,  that  it  ever  waxes  glad, 

And  more  glad,  until  gladness  blossoms,  bursts 
Into  a  rage  to  suffer  for  mankind, 

And  recommence  at  sorrow  ;  drops  like  seed 
After  the  blossom,  ultimate  of  all. 

Say,  does  the  seed  scorn  earth  and  seek  the  sun  ? 

Surely  it  has  no  other  end  and  aim 
Than  to  drop,  once  more  into  the  ground, 

Taste  cold  and  darkness  and  oblivion  there : 

And  thence  rise,  tree-like  grow  through  pain  to  joy, 

More  joy  and  most  joy,  — do  man  good  again. 

Browning,  BalaustioiV s  Adventure. 

For  God  so  pardoned  us  once,  that  we  should  need  no  more 
pardon.  He  pardoned  us  by  turning  every  one  of  us  away  from  our 
iniquities.  That’s  the  purpose  of  Christ,  that  He  might  safely 
pardon  us  before  we  sinned ;  and  we  might  not  sin  upon  the  con¬ 
fidence  of  pardon.  He  pardoned  us  not  only  upon  condition  we 
should  sin  no  more,  but  He  took  away  our  sin,  cured  our  cursed 
inclinations,  instructed  our  understanding,  rectified  our  will,  forti¬ 
fied  us  against  temptation,  and  now  every  man  whom  He  pardons 
He  also  sanctifies. 

Bp.  Jeremy  Taylor,  Sermon  on  Miracles  of  Divine  Mercy, 

Works,  II.  348. 

138 


A  dubious,  strange,  uncomprehended  life, 

A  roll  of  riddles  with  no  answer  found, 

A  sea-like  soul  which  plummet  cannot  sound, 

Torn  by  belligerent  winds  at  mutual  strife. 

The  God  in  him  hath  taken  unto  wife 
A  daughter  of  the  pit,  and  —  strangely  bound 
By  coils  of  snake-like  hair  about  him  wound  — 

Dies  straining  hard  to  raise  the  severing  knife. 

For  such  a  sunken  soul  what  room  in  Heaven  ? 

For  such  a  soaring  soul  what  place  in  hell  ? 

Can  these  desires  be  damned,  the  doings  shriven, 

Or  in  some  lone  mid-region  must  he  dwell 
Forever  ?  Lo  !  God  sitteth  with  the  seven 
Stars  in  His  hand,  and  shall  not  He  judge  well  ? 

James  Ashcraft  Noble. 

To  the  truly  honourable  man  the  Divine  forgiveness  of  his  sin 
is  the  most  pressing  of  all  necessities  because  it  is  the  primary 
condition  of  real  liberation  from  sin.  .  .  .  The  act  of  forgiving 
consists  in  God’s  making  the  sinner  conscious  of  His  own  gracious 
attitude  toward  him  by  actually  realising  it  in  his  experience.  The 
sinner  experiences,  realises,  becomes  conscious  of  it. 

K.  Rothe,  The  Still  Hours. 

There  is  quackery  in  religion  no  less  than  in  medicine,  and  mul¬ 
titudes  give  themselves  over  to  it ;  in  the  foolish  hope  that  by  some 
merely  outward  application  —  some  creed  accepted,  some  prayer 
said,  some  penance  endured,  some  action  performed,  some  church 
obeyed  —  they  can  cure  an  inward  disease.  But  nature  is  every¬ 
where  protesting  against  such  self-deception :  and  no  man  who 
listens  to  her  voice  can  abandon  himself  to  such  futile  methods. 
What  he  requires  is  that  his  disease  must  be  cured,  and  not  merely 
covered  up  or  condoned. 

George  Harwood,  From  Within. 


139 


I  have  heard  my  lord  say  —  That  no  equivocation  should  be  used 
either  in  Church  or  Law,  for  the  one  causes  several  Opinions  to  the 
disturbance  of  men’s  Consciences  :  the  other,  long  and  tedious 
suits  to  the  disturbance  of  men’s  private  Affairs  :  and  both  do 
oftentimes  mine  and  impoverish  the  State. 

Life  of  Wm.  Cavendish ,  Duke  of  Newcastle ,  by  Margaret, 
Duchess  of  Newcastle,  a.d.  1667. 


140 


SYNOPSIS. 


Introduction  : 

The  relation  of  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins  to  the  purpose  of 
the  Church.  Actual  vs.  forensic  forgiveness. 

Comparative  Religion: 

I.  —  Theories  of  Forgiveness  of  Sins  in  folk-faith. 

a.  The  appeasement  of  an  angry,  evil,  or  non-moral 

deity.  Origin  of  commercial  theories  of  forgive¬ 
ness.  The  idea  of  fate  and  of  fear  as  a  religious 
motive. 

b.  The  substitution  of  another  to  hear  the  penalty  of  sin  : 

the  scapegoat  theory  in  its  various  forms  ;  sin-eat¬ 
ing  ;  the  worship  of  the  sacrificial  victim ;  the 
divine  scapegoat  in  Jewish  theory,  in  the  Norse 
Voluspa ,  and  in  the  Prometheus  Bound  ;  the  hear¬ 
ing  of  this  theory  upon  pessimism  and  the  problem 
of  Pain ;  the  survivals  of  the  scapegoat  and  sub¬ 
stitutionary  theory  in  modern  Theology. 

Biblical  Theology: 

II.  —  An  examination  of  the  New  Testament  shows  that  the 
purpose  and  work  of  Jesus  is  to  remove  sins,  conse¬ 
quently  their  penalty.  Significance  of  the  symbol  of 
the  lamb.  The  New  Testament  doctrine  of  ransom 
an  ethical  doctrine  ;  its  relation  to  the  true  idea  of 
God  and  to  the  office  of  the  Church.  Was  the  death 
of  Jesus  a  penal  satisfaction,  a  commercial  substi¬ 
tution  ? 

Traditional  Theology  : 

III.  —  In  the  evolution  of  Christian  Theology  survivals  of  folk- 
faith  have  hindered  a  full  reception  and  free  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  forgiveness. 
But  Christian  Theologians  have  not  been  altogether 
without  moments  of  insight  into  this  truth.  The 


141 


opinion  of  Irenaeus,  of  Origen,  of  Justin  Martyr,  of 
Tertullian,  and  of  Anselm.  Ritschl’s  Criticism  of  the 
Anselmic  Theory  of  the  Atonement.  Further  criti¬ 
cisms  of  this  theory  ;  the  utility  of  having  a  clearly 
defined  system  of  the  Atonement ;  the  mistake  of 
beginning  Theology  with  the  fall ;  survival  of  pagan¬ 
ism. 


Practical  Aspect  : 


c. 


d. 


IV.  —  a.  Turning  again  to  the  constructive  portion,  teach  not 
this  doctrine  with  too  much  refinement  of  formal 
Theology  and  method. 

b.  Further  consideration  of  fear  as  a  motive  to  righteous¬ 
ness  leads  us  to  believe  that  it  belongs  to  a  rudi¬ 
mentary  stage  of  the  development  of  human 
character. 

The  true  idea  of  pain,  a  coefficient  of  redemptive 
process. 

Evil  rightly  understood  is  perceived  to  be  privative, 
and  sin  to  be  generated  by  the  will ;  hence  forgive¬ 
ness  is  rectification  of  the  will. 
e.  The  psychology  of  sin  suggests  the  answer  to  the 
historic  question,  “  Cur  I)eus  Homo?”  The 
essential  union  of  God  and  man  in  sacrifice  in  the 
sphere  of  Christ’s  mediatorial  work.  This  gives 
an  ethical  force  which  forensic  theories  lack. 

/.  This  teaching  stands  the  test  of  psychological  analysis, 

g.  Of  rational  scrutiny  and  of 

h.  Human  experience.  The  relation  of  this  actual  for¬ 
giveness  of  sin  to  that  fictitious  forgiveness  which, 
founded  on  legal  phraseology,  is  powerless  to 
answer  the  demands  of  life. 


142 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


Gentlemen  :  — 

The  final  form  of  the  ecumenical  creed  is  precisely, 
“  we  confess  one  baptism  for  the  purpose  of  removal 
of  sins.” 1  This  is  the  Church’s  antiphon  to  the 
great  commission  of  the  Master.  “  As  ye  journey, 
make  all  nations  learners,  baptising  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.”  2  The  Church  of  God  is  a  school  for  learn¬ 
ers  ;  —  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say  with  St. 
Ignatius,  —  of  those  who  “hope  to  begin  to  learn.” 
The  Church  is  this  because  it  is,  as  I  have  already 
stated,  a  special  manifestation  of  the  Triune  Love  in 
Whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  exist,  Who  is  cease¬ 
lessly  out-yielding  Himself,  that  we  may  become  one 
with  Him.  The  process  by  which  that  union  takes 
place  is  termed  variously,  Sanctification,  Salvation, 
Forgiveness  of  Sins.  Because  in  the  Church  is  the 
distinctest  consciousness  of  this  redemptive  operation 

1  els  acpeaiv  dfMapTi&v.  We  might  translate  this,  “unto  the 
end  that  there  may  he  a  removal  of  sins.”  The  difference  is  inap¬ 
preciable. 

2  7 ropevdtvres  pLadrjT  ever  are  irdvra  ra  eOvrj,  k.t.\ .,  St.  Matt,  xxviii. 


19. 


143 


144 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


of  God  in  His  world,  set  forth  by  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  function  or  office  of  the  Church  in  a 
special  way  is  the  removal  of  the  evil  of  the  world, 
of  society,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  Has  the 
Church  forgotten  that  her  mission  is  to  heal  the  woes, 
and  right  the  wrongs,  of  the  children  of  men  ?  Her 
mission  is  a  social,  because  an  individual,  work.  It 
is  first  of  all  individual.  God  speaks  to  humanity  in 
speaking  to  each  individual  soul.  Externally,  bap¬ 
tism,  as  I  have  said,  is  a  sign  of  the  Christian  cove¬ 
nant,  and  it  is  a  sign  of  promise.  It  is  the  sacrament 
of  regeneration,  because  it  is  the  door  of  birth  into  a 
new  environment  of  prayer,  praise,  and  all  sanctify¬ 
ing  influences,  of  an  attitude  of  receptiveness  towards 
God,  of  removal  of  sins,  which  is  the  state  of  salva¬ 
tion,  of  deepening  the  sense  of  godliness,  which  is 
the  beginning  ■  of  the  consciousness  of  God ;  the 
beginning,  I  say,  for  the  Eternal  is  not  a  mere  Begriff 
of  rectitude.  The  Church  is  really  a  new  environ¬ 
ment,  a  supernatural  world.  The  principle  of  life  in 
the  natural  world  is  self-interest,  the  principle  of  the 
Church  is  unselfishness.  The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  only  true  sociology,  and  we  as  gospellers  should 
study  the  questions  of  modern  sociology  that  we  may 
know  how  to  apply  the  remedy  of  the  gospel  to  the 
ills  of  the  body  politic.1  The  two  worlds  are  tliere- 

1  I  recommend  all  our  younger  clergy  to  enter  tlie  Christian 
Social  Union  of  the  United  States.  Particulars  may  be  learned 
by  addressing  Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely,  Madison,  Wis. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OE  SINS. 


145 


fore  utterly  different.  We  are  born  into  the  natural 
world,  with  its  fierce  struggle  for  existence,  but  this 
is  a  condition  of  temporary  life.  To  attain  endless¬ 
ness,  we  must  be  born  again,  into  a  new  environment, 
and  must  learn  to  conform  ourselves  to  it.  To 
this  end,  Baptism  was  ordained,  that  we  might  be 
born  into  a  higher  plane  of  action,1  into  a  visible 
organisation  which  is  an  institution,  Christ-founded 
and  God-filled,  of  which  the  law  is  the  giving  up  of 
self.  This  renunciation  is  a  condition  of  the  for¬ 
giveness  of  sins.  I  freely  admit  that  this  has  not 
been  the  generally  accepted  interpretation  of  this 
Article  of  the  Creed,  or  that  doctrine  of  forgiveness 
most  in  vogue  throughout  all  the  nineteen  centuries 
of  Christendom.  A  magical  and  not  a  moral  opera¬ 
tion  has  been  the  notion  of  Catholicism  and  Calvinism 

1  The  Gorham  judgment  settled  nothing  for  the  doctrine  of 
baptism  in  the  English  Church,  for  the  decision  was  based  upon 
a  statement  which  the  Privy  Council  attributed  to  Mr.  Gorham, 
but  which  he  took  special  pains  to  deny.  Mr.  Gorham’s  real 
position  was  undoubtedly  that  of  conditional  regeneration,  in  the 
old  traditional  sense  of  regeneration.  His  bishop,  Dr.  Pliilpotts 
of  Exeter,  possessed  of  the  same  traditional  idea,  affirmed  that 
baptismal  regeneration  is  unconditional  in  the  case  of  infants,  but 
conditional  in  the  case  of  adults,  thus  implicitly  affirming  two  bap¬ 
tisms,  which  is  contrary  to  the  Creed.  Proby,  Annals  of  the  Low- 
Church  Party  in  England ,  II.  c.  38.  This  confusion  illustrates 
the  untenability  of  the  notion  of  substantial  grace,  imparted  or 
infused,  when  brought  to  any  scientific  test,  and  it  suggests  to  us 
the  necessity  of  examining  carefully  the  full  significance  of  the 
baptismal  covenant. 


146 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


alike,  and  upon  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
including  within  it  both  these  mental  attitudes,  a 
double  portion  of  the  spirit  of  this  error  has  fallen. 
From  the  Euskarian  predilection  for  magic  and 
charms,  from  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  where  “  sea 
surges  dash  all  sins  away,”  from  the  Mithraic  tauro- 
bolium,  from  the  Norse  wise  woman,  with  her  potent 
philter  in  a  horn  scratched  with  powerful  runes,  we 
have  inherited  the  convictions  that  forgiveness  of 
sins  is  a  magical,  non-ethical,  purely  objective  wiping 
out  of  a  score  against  us,  and  a  settlement  of  our 
account  in  Heaven’s  great  ledger,  by  a  free  cancella¬ 
tion  of  a  debt  which  could  never  be  liquidated,  and 
charging  the  same  to  the  account  of  another.  In 
this  way,  salvation  is  made  a  commercial  transaction, 
where  still  in  the  temple  of  Christian  Theology,  are 
the  benches  of  the  moneychangers,  and  the  seats  of 
those  who  sell  doves.  We  ask  those  who  press  their 
proof-texts  of  commercial  redemption,  To  whom  was 
the  price  paid ;  to  God  or  to  the  Devil  ?  Indeed,  we 
are  bought  with  a  price ;  but  the  price  is  paid  to  the 
souls  of  the  redeemed.  The  Good  Shepherd  brings 
home  the  lamb  upon  his  shoulders. 

I.  The  evolution  of  Folk-faith  reveals  that  it  is  the 
disposition  of  men  to  shift  upon  another  the  results 
of  their  sin.  A  resume  of  the  ruling  ideas  of  sin  and 
its  remission  is  easily  made.  The  theories  of  sin,  out¬ 
side  the  teaching  of  Christ,  develop  themselves  in 
three  or  four  main  lines. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


147 


a.  In  his  primitive  condition  man  attributes  evil  as 
well  as  good  to  one  and  the  same  divine  power.  He 
thinks  that  with  God  might  makes  right,  supposing 
that  God  is  altogether  such  an  one  as  himself.  He 
imagines  that  God  arbitrarily  makes  one  vessel  for 
honour  and  another  for  dishonour ;  one  human  being 
for  degradation  here  and  eternal  agonies  hereafter; 
another  for  piety  here  and  the  reward  of  endless  joy 
hereafter.  As  Mr.  Browning’s  Caliban  ruminates 
upon  his  god,  Setebos  :  — 

“  Making  and  marring  clay  at  will  ?  So  He. 

’Thinketh,  such  shows  nor  right  nor  wrong  in  Him, 

Nor  kind,  nor  cruel :  He  is  strong  and  Lord. 

’Am  strong  myself  compared  to  yonder  crabs 
That  march  now  from  the  mountain  to  the  sea ; 

’Let  twenty  pass,  and  stone  the  twenty-first, 

Loving  not,  hating  not,  just  choosing  so  .  .  . 

As  it  likes  me  each  time,  I  do  :  so  He  .  .  . 

Conceiveth  all  things  will  continue  thus, 

And  we  shall  have  to  live  in  fear  of  Him 

So  long  as  He  lives,  keeps  His  strength :  no  change, 

If  He  have  done  His  best,  make  no  new  world 
To  please  Him  more,  so  leave  off  watching  this,  — 

If  He  surprise  not  even  the  Quiet’s  self 
Some  strange  day,  —  or,  suppose,  grow  into  it 
As  grubs  grow  butterflies :  else,  here  are  we, 

And  there  is  He,  and  nowhere  help  at  all.” 

Perhaps  Jacob  Grimm  is  right  in  saying,  u  The  idea 
of  the  devil  is  foreign  to  all  primitive  religions  for 
this  reason,  that  in  all  primitive  religions  the  idea  of 


148 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


God  is  the  idea  of  the  devil.”  The  savage  is  domi¬ 
nated  by  fear,  —  of  ferocious  beasts,  of  malignant 
enemies,  of  growing  old,  of  his  medicine  man  and 
witchcraft,  and,  above  all,  of  some  awful  unseen  pres¬ 
ence,  and  of  vampires  ravenous,  and  ghosts  that 
gibber  and  squeak.  Dr.  Judson  from  Alaska,1  and 
Mr.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,2  from  the  South  Seas, 
assure  us  that  to-day  primitive  people  are  afraid  of 
the  dark,  and  of  loneliness,  of  the  sky,  and  of  the  for¬ 
est,  and  most  of  all  of  something  they  know  not  what. 
Fear,  said  the  Roman  sceptic,  made  the  gods,  and  it 
is  an  open  secret  that  the  concealed  god  of  Rome, 
whose  name  it  was  death  to  reveal,  was  Fear.  Fear 
must  be  the  sentiment  controlling  man,  when  his  idea 
of  God  is  that  of  an  austere  justice  up  above  the 
clouds,  as  an  arbitrary,  self-satisfying  power  beyond 
the  furthest  fixed  star,  who  makes  and  mars  by  u  the  3 
eternal  and  most  free  purpose  of  His  will,”  by  “  the 
unsearchable  counsel  of  His  own  will,  whereby  He 
extendeth  or  withlioldeth  mercy  as  He  pleaseth,  for 
the  glory  of  His  sovereign  power  over  His  creatures.” 
Arbitrariness  is  but  another  name  for  chance.  Chance 
is  the  real  devil  of  this  world.  Now,  against  this 
fundamental  error  of  the  idea  of  a  self-satisfying, 
arbitrary  God,  the  late  Canon  Liddon  wrote  : 4  “  Sin 
does  not  contradict  an  arbitrary  law  made  by  God,  but 

1  Report  of  Bureau  of  Education.  2  Ballads. 

3  Westminster  Confession ,  III.  6,  7, 

4  Elements  of  Religion ,  156. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


149 


a  law  which  is  eternal  as  the  nature  of  His  Being. 
So  old  theologians  said  that  were  sin  (per  impossibile') 
exaggerated  sufficiently  it  would  annihilate  God.” 
Long  has  survived  the  appeal  to  fear  to  furnish  a 
religious  motive.  Protestant  revivalists  and  Roman 
Catholic  “  missioners  ”  still  find  it  useful.  It  is  still 
the  short  and  easy  method  of  making  men  professing 
Christians.  There  is,  however,  in  it  this  serious  de¬ 
fect,  that  it  is  not  the  principle  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ.  His  teaching  is  that  the  conditions  of  future 
bliss  and  woe  are  within  the  soul,  that  they  belong  to 
its  character.  If  through  character  we  may  be  lost 
then  through  character  we  may  be  saved.  This  is 
not  the  same  as  to  assert  salvation  by  character.  The 
truth  is  fairly  well  expressed  when  old  Omar  Khay¬ 
yam  sings  through  Fitzgerald’s  verse:  — 

“  I  sent  my  Soul  through  the  Invisible, 

Some  letter  of  that  After-life  to  spell : 

And  by  and  by  my  Soul  return’d  to  me, 

And  answer’d  ‘I,  Myself,  am  Ileav’n  and  Hell: 

“  ‘  Heav’n  but  the  Vision  of  fulfill’d  Desire, 

And  Ilell  the  Shadow  from  a  Soul  on  fire, 

Cast  on  the  Darkness  into  which  Ourselves, 

So  late  emerg’d  from,  shall  so  soon  expire.’  ” 

The  notion  of  God  as  an  arbitrary,  that  is  to  say  non- 
moral,  Power  has  been  preserved  in  the  ancient  symbol 
of  the  Divine  Potter,  which  Egyptologists  from  Sir 
Gardner  Wilkinson  to  the  late  Miss  Edwards  have 


150 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


noticed  and  made  note  of.  In  the  mural  pictures 
belonging  to  the  early  dynasties,  we  see  Knum,  the 
Divine  Potter,  shaping  man  upon  a  common  potter’s 
wheel.  Carlyle  abundantly  ridiculed  this  pot-theism, 
as  he  named  it,  in  Christian  Theology,  and  confessedly 
the  notion  does  look  like  a  survival  from  primitive 
culture.  Prof.  Shedd,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
pointed  out  that  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  1  the 
proof-text  of  fatalistic  pot-theists,  the  figure  of  the 
Potter  and  the  pots,  is  of  God  as  a  Saviour,  not  as  a 
Creator,  and  that  St.  Paul  is  stating  the  liberty  of 
God  to  save  some  and  ignore  others,  not  from  conse¬ 
quences  of  His  creative  and  causative  act,  but  of  their 
own  self-determination.  Also,  Dr.  Hodge  says:  “In 
the  sovereignty  here  asserted,  it  is  of  God  as  a  moral 
governor  and  not  as  a  creator.”  Though  we  be  not 
willing  to  go  with  these  reverend  professors  even  thus 
far  in  their  theory  of  the  arbitrariness  of  God,  yet 
we  cannot  but  rejoice  that  supralapsarianism  hath 
experienced  the  lifting  up  of  a  heel,  and  that  Jacob 
Bohmen  has  been  elected  to  a  professorial  chair. 

“  Ay,  note  that  Potter’s  wheel, 

That  metaphor  !  and  feel 

Why  time  spins  fast,  why  passive  lies  our  clay,  — 

Thou  to  whom  fools  propound 
When  the  wine  makes  its  round, 

‘  Since  life  fleets  all  is  change  ;  the  Past  gone,  seize  to-day.’ 


1  ix.  21. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


151 


“  Fool !  All  that  is  at  all 
Lasts  ever,  past  recall ; 

Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul  and  God  stand  sure : 

What  entered  into  thee, 

That  was,  is,  and  shall  be  : 

Time’s  wheel  runs  back  or  stops  :  Potter  and  clay  endure. 

“  lie  fixed  thee  mid  this  dance 
Of  plastic  circumstance, 

This  present,  thou,  forsooth,  wouldst  fain  arrest : 
Machinery  just  meant 
To  give  thy  soul  its  bent, 

Try  thee  and  turn  thee  forth,  sufficiently  impressed.” 

With  this  interpretation  of  professors  and  poet,  will, 
I  hope,  vanish  this  proof-text  of  a  devil-worshipping 
element  of  absolute  predestination  from  the  realm 
of  Christian  Theology.  I  cannot,  although  I  have 
already  quoted  so  much,  refrain  from  citing  also  these 
words  of  good  old  Jeremy  Taylor :  “What  is  the  secret 
of  the  Mysterie,  that  the  eternal  Son  of  God  should 
take  upon  Him  our  nature,  and  die  our  death,  and 
suffer  for  our  sins  and  do  our  work,  and  enable  us  to 
do  our  own  ?  He  that  did  this  is  God :  Who  thought 
it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with  Grod.  He  came  to  satisfy 
Himself,  to  pay  for  Himself  the  price  for  His  own 
creatures;  and  when  He  did  this  for  us  that  He  might 
pardon  us,  was  He  at  that  instant  angry  with  us  ? 
Was  this  an  effect  of  His  anger  or  of  His  love,  that 
God  sent  His  Son  to  work  our  pardon  and  salvation  ? 
Indeed,  we  were  angry  with  God,  at  enmity  with  the 


152 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Prince  of  Life :  but  He  was  reconciled  to  us  so  far,  as 
that  He  then  did  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world  for 
us  :  for  nothing  could  be  greater  than  that  God,  Son 
of  God,  should  die  for  us :  here  was  reconciliation 
before  pardon:  and  God  that  came  to  die  for  us  did 
love  us  first  before  He  came  :  this  was  hasty  love.”  1 
Further  discussion  of  the  subject  of  divine  decrees 
may  be  left  to  those  individuals  who,  if  Milton  2  may 
be  trusted,  make  this  their  chief  topic  of  conversation. 
Humanity  in  its  childhood,  supposing  that  God  is  the 
Author  of  evil  as  well  as  of  good,  makes  it  a  matter 
of  the  highest  import ;  and  his  chief  duty  in  life  to 
soothe  the  wrath  and  the  evil  disposition  of  God. 
At  first,  whatever  might  be  his  real  opinion,  man  in 
the  piety  of  his  heart  says  what  he  thinks  he  ought 
to  say,  —  “  whatever  this  God  does  is  good.”  The 
Yezidee,  or  devil- worshipper,  will  not  allow  the  devil’s 
name  to  be  uttered.  Pretence  is  made  that  he  is 
good,  is  God,  lest  he  should  take  revenge  upon  men. 
The  Greeks  also  from  a  sense  of  self-protection,  flat¬ 
teringly  called  the  Furies,  the  Eumenides,  well  dis¬ 
posed.  In  a  similar  way  a  crude  notion  of  divine 
sovereignty  has  attempted  to  persuade  itself  that  the 
evils  of  life  are  not  evil.  This  shallow  optimism, 
however  pious  its  motive,  justly  provoked  the  derision 
of  Voltaire. 

If  a  primitive  man  has  had  some  pleasure,  he  is 

1  Miracles  of  the  Divine  Mercy ,  Works,  II.  347. 

2  Paradise  Lost,  II.  555  ft. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


153 


afraid  lest  lie  may  have  thereby  aroused  the  envy 
of  the  gods,  and,  consequently,  he  hastens  to 
undergo  voluntarily  some  pain  as  an  expiation.  To 
avert  the  vindictiveness  of  these  malicious  super¬ 
nal  beings  he  will  devote  what  he  most  values  in 
order  to  placate  them.  His  fundamental  idea  of 
human  life  is  that  it  has  no  right  to  pleasure  or  joy. 
Just  here  we  perceive  the  fountain-head  of  theories 
of  satisfaction  in  sacrifice  and  atonement,  of  puri- 
tanism  and  the  ascetic  life,  of  purgatory  and  indul¬ 
gences,  and,  in  short,  of  the  whole  theological  system 
of  a  commercial  salvation :  as  though  to  God  some 
equivalent  must  be  given  for  human  happiness,  and 
He  must  be  continually  propitiated,  and  His  anger 
soothed. 

b.  The  next  step,  after  shifting  moral  responsi¬ 
bility  to  another,  is  to  transfer  the  guilt  and  penalty 
of  sin.  Just  here  we  believe  that  we  can  detect  the 
beginning  of  the  idea  of  substitutionary  sacrifice  and 
vicarious  punishment,  which  in  subsequent  days  has 
played  so  large  a  r61e  in  Christian  Theology.  The 
an te-Nicene  Church 1  held  the  doctrine  of  vicarious 
suffering,  not  of  vicarious  satisfaction.  Now  vica¬ 
rious  suffering  is  an  obvious  fact  of  life.  Whence, 
then,  came  into  Christian  Theology  the  large  element 
of  vicarious  satisfaction  ?  The  historian,  Gibbon,  de¬ 
livers  one  of  his  sneers  at  Christianity  when,  speak¬ 
ing  of  Alboin’s  invasion  of  Italy,  he  adds  in  a  note  2 

1  Ilagenbach,  History  of  Doctrines,  I.  262.  2  C.  xlv.  n.  14. 


154 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


that  the  goat  which  the  Lombards  sacrificed  they  first 
worshipped,  and  he  adds,  “  I  know  of  but  one  religion 
in  which  the  god  and  the  victim  are  the  same.”  In 
point  of  fact,  Gibbon  convicts  himself  of  knowing 
very  little  about  any  religion  whatever,  for  the  idea 
which  appears  to  him  singular  is  wellnigh  universal, 
although  in  highly  developed  religions  it  has  been 
somewhat  obscured.  In  Mexico  they  made  an  image 
of  God  out  of  maize  or  of  dough,  and  after  this  had 
been  adored,  it  was  distributed  among  the  people. 

In  the  parish  of  King’s  Teignton,  on  each  Whitsun- 
Monday,  a  lamb  is  drawn  about  in  a  cart  and  is  gaily 
decked.  The  next  day  it  is  killed,  roasted  whole  in 
the  middle  of  the  village,  and  all  the  villagers  par¬ 
take.  The  origin  of  the  custom  having  been  for¬ 
gotten,  a  legend  about  a  spring  of  water  has  been 
invented  to  account  for  it.1  The  singular  aptness  of 
this  survival  in  the  Eastern  Church  deserves  our  par¬ 
ticular  attention.  In  the  “  Order  of  the  Holy  Proth¬ 
esis,  as  performed  in  the  Great  Church  and  in  the 
Holy  Mountain,”  the  loaf  of  the  Eucharistic  oblation 
is  set  forth,  made  with  a  square  projection,  “seal,” 
on  the  top,  called  the  Holy  Lamb.  The  rite  proceeds : 
Then  the  Priest  takes  in  his  left  hand  the  oblations , 
and  in  his  right  the  holy  spear.  In  remembrance  of 
our  Lord,  and  God,  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  ( This 
he  saith  thrice.')  He  then  thrusts  the  spear  into  the 
right  side  of  the  seal  and  saith ,  as  he  cuts ,  “  He  was 

1  Ethnology  in  Folklore,  by  G.  L.  Gomme,  30,  125. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


155 


led  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter.”  Into  the  left ,  saying , 
“  and  as  a  blameless  lamb.”  .  .  .  And  the  priest,  thrust¬ 
ing  the  holy  spear  obliquely  into  the  right  side  of  the 
oblation,  raises  up  the  holy  Bread,  saying,  “  for  His 
life  is  taken  away  from  the  earth.”  The  deacon  saith, 
u  Sir,  sacrifice.”  The  Priest  saith,  while  he  cuts  cross¬ 
wise,  u  the  Lamb  of  God  is  sacrificed.”  .  .  .  Then  they 
both  adore  reverently  three  times.  Again,  in  the  pro¬ 
anaphora  (before  the  consecration)  of  the  liturgy  of 
St.  Chrysostom,  there  is  an  adoration  of  the  Sacra¬ 
mental  Oblation,  and  these  words  occur  in  the  prayer, 
“For  thou  art  He  that  offerest,  and  art  offered,  and 
receivest,  and  art  distributed,  Christ  our  God,  and  to 
thee  we  ascribe,”  etc.1  But  the  Latin  Church  adores 
the  Eucharistic  food  not  until  after  the  words  of 
consecration.  Among  English,  Scotch,  and  Welsh 
peasants,  sin-eating,  which  was  once  a  universal 
custom,  still  in  remote  localities  is  occasionally  ob¬ 
served.2  Though  no  longer  anywhere  in  Christen¬ 
dom,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  any  one  baptised  for  the 
dead,  yet  at  the  funerals  of  these  peasants  to  whom 
I  have  just  referred,  poor  people  are  hired  to  eat  a 
“  sin-loaf,”  and  thus  to  take  upon  themselves  the  sins 
of  the  dead.  The  same  custom  of  sin-eating  for  the 
dead  obtains  in  Turkestan.3  This  sin-eating4  was  an 

1  The  Primitive  Liturgies ,  by  Neale  and  Littledale,  106,  180. 

2  Ethnology  and  Folklore,  117.  3  Golden  Bough,  II.  155. 

4  Cf.  Hos.  iv.  8.,  and  references  below  ;  also  Water  of  Jealousy , 

Num.  v.  11-31. 


156 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


important  element  in  the  rationale  of  the  sacrificial 
meal  of  the  priests,  according  to  the  Levitical  code. 
By  the  eating  of  the  sacrifice  over  which  the  sins 
had  been  confessed,  and  to  which,  by  imposition 
of  hands,  the  sins  had  been  transferred,  the  priest 
was  supposed  to  have  taken  into  himself  the  sin  or 
the  guilt  of  it.  The  theory  was  that  the  holiness  of  the 
priesthood  in  this  manner  neutralised  the  virus  of  the 
substance  of  sin.  If,  however,  by  the  defective  holi¬ 
ness  of  the  priest,  or  from  any  other  cause,  some  sin 
remained  unneutralised,  it  passed  up  to  the  high 
priest,  who  once  a  year  transferred  it  by  imposition 
of  hands  to  a  scapegoat.1  An  American  theologian 
has  extended  this  idea  of  pardon  through  sin-eating 
by  asserting  that  the  Eucharist  is  the  Sacrament  of 
Absolution.  In  this  ancient  theory  and  practice  of 
sacrifices  do  we  rightly  discern  the  beginning  of  the 
origin  of  the  revelation  of  a  mediator  and  redeemer.2 

The  transference  of  guilt  to  a  sin-bearer  is  a  com¬ 
mon  element  of  Folk-faith.  When  a  Moor  has  a 
headache  he  will  sometimes  take  a  lamb  or  goat  and 
beat  it  till  it  falls  down,  and  he  believes  that  the 
headache  has  then  been  transferred  to  the  animal.3 

% 

1  Willis,  Worship  of  the  Old  Covenant ,  I.  43. 

2  Professor  Robertson  Smith,  who  to  me  is  not  perfectly  clear, 
seems  ( Beligion  of  the  Semites ,  330  ff.)  to  dissent  from  this  expla¬ 
nation  of  sin  offering. 

3  Golden  Bough ,  II.  149.  Cf.  Lev.  xiv.  7,  where  a  bird  is  let 
dy  to  carry  away  a  taboo. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


157 


In  Travancore,  when  the  Rajah  is  very  ill,  a  Brahmin 
is  brought  in  who  embraces  him  and  voluntarily 
assumes  the  guilt  of  the  Rajah’s  sin,  saying,  “  Oh, 
King,  I  undertake  to  bear  away  all  your  sins  and 
diseases  ;  may  your  Highness  live  long  and  reign  hap¬ 
pily.”  The  Brahmin  sin-bearer  is  then  thrust  forth 
from  the  country,  to  which  he  may  never  return. 
Superstitious  sailors  in  order  to  ease  their  ship  of 
misfortune  will  maroon  one  of  their  fellows.  Jonah’s 
crew  cast  him  overboard  to  save  themselves,  by  offer¬ 
ing  him  a  sacrifice  to  the  angry  god. 

This  custom  of  sin-bearing  prevails  throughout  all 
races  in  various  forms.  It  has  among  Christian 
peoples  often  been  relegated  to  the  realm  of  witch¬ 
craft.  In  1615,  Catherine  Bigland1  was  tried  for 
having  transferred  by  magic  arts  a  disease  from  herself 
to  a  man.  The  Scotch  Baron  of  Fowlis,  being  very 
ill,  in  1588,  sent  for  a  witch,  who  told  him  that  he 
could  not  recover  unless  the  principal  man  of  his 
blood  should  die  in  his  place.  At  midnight,  at  a 
place  near  high-water  mark,  a  grave  was  dug  and  the 
sick  man  placed  in  it ;  the  grave  was  then  covered 
with  green  turf,  and  the  witch  was  asked  who  should 
die  in  place  of  the  baron.  She  replied  that  his  brother 
George  should  die  for  him.  After  this  ceremony  the 
sick  man  was  removed  from  the  grave  to  his  bed. 
He  recovered,  but  his  brother  George  died.  In  the 
Highlands  it  has  been  customary  to  wash  a  cat  in 

1  Gomme,  Ethnoloyy  in  Folklore,  142  ft 


158 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


water  which  has  been  used  for  washing  the  body  of 
a  sick  person,  and  then  the  cat  is  set  free  to  carry  off 
the  disease.  A  further  development  of  this  thought 
of  sin-hearing  led  to  the  saining  torch  used  by  the 
border  troopers  at  the  funeral  of  one  of  their  fellows. 
This  torch  was  made  from  the  fat  of  a  slaughtered 
enemy,  or  at  least  of  a  murdered  man.  Another 
vehicle  for  the  expulsion  of  evils,  moral  and  physical, 
between  which  primitive  man  does  not  clearly  dis¬ 
tinguish,  is  a  little  boat.  This  is  the  favourite  among 
the  islanders  of  the  Archipelago.  In  China  a  kite 
bears  away  sins  to  Shang-ti,  the  sky-god ;  in  Malacca 
an  ox  is  driven  off  into  the  forest  for  a  tiger  to  kill ; 
in  Lhasa,  the  holy  city  of  Thibet,  the  sin-bearer  is  a 
man  driven  forth  from  the  city  with  such  rough  treat¬ 
ment  that  seldom  he  survives.1  Annually  was  sent 
from  the  sanctuary  of  Israel  a  goat  devoted  to  Azazel. 
Upon  him  were  concentrated  the  sins  of  the  sons  of 
Jacob.  That  Azazel  was  in  early  times  a  personifica¬ 
tion  of  evil,  we  may  learn  from  an  older  document  in 
the  Book  of  Enoch,2  where  Azazel  appears  as  the  most 
malicious  of  the  fallen  angels,  the  demon  who  taught 
men  the  sins  of  lust  and  sorcery.  By  the  archangel 
Raphael  this  wicked  spirit  was  bound  and  cast  forth 
into  a  deserted  region.  From  the  Book  of  Enoch  it 
appears  also  that  Azazel  filled  in  early  Hebrew  folk- 
faith  and  myth  the  place  occupied  after  the  exile  by 
Satan.  To  Azazel  in  desolate  regions  the  high  priest 

1  Golden  Bough ,  II.  199.  2  Book  of  Enoch  vii-xi. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


159 


sent  forth  the  scapegoat  laden  with  the  sins  of  the 
people.  The  Talmud  gives  us  to  understand  that  the 
scapegoat’s  death  was  caused  by  being  pushed  over  a 
precipice.  This  reminds  us  that  yearly  at  the  Thar- 
gelia,  the  Athenians  threw  from  the  Acropolis  a  man 
and  a  woman,  that  they  might  bear  the  sins  of  the 
City  of  the  Violet  Crown  back  to  the  source  of  sin. 
In  a  like  manner  victims  were  hurled  from  the 
Tarpeian  rock  in  Rome,  and  the  legend  of  Tarpeia 
was  a  subsequent  invention  when  the  true  origin  of 
the  custom  in  piacular  substitution  had  been  forgot¬ 
ten.1  The  idea  which  originally  was  connected  with 
this  form  of  sacrifice  was  the  freeing  of  the  tribe  from 
an  impious  member.  After  the  original  thought  had 
been  forgotten,  the  doctrine  of  substitutionary  death 
entered  into  the  religions  of  both  Aryans  and  Semites. 
In  ancient  Babylon  a  young  man  was  selected,  and 
for  a  season  treated  as  a  god,  and  afterwards  scourged 
and  crucified,  to  bear  away  the  sins  of  the  nation.2 
In  Mexico  of  ancient  days,  exactly  the  same  sacrifice 
of  a  human  scapegoat  was  offered  yearly.  This  wide¬ 
spread  theory  of  pacifying  an  angry  god  by  a  gift 
was  evolved  from  the  earlier  notion  of  feeding  the 
god,  a  notion  which  held  in  its  heart  the  essence  of 
all  effectual  sacrifice  ;  namely,  self-sacrifice.  But  the 

1  Cf.  2  Chron.  xxv.  12  ;  Hosea  x.  14.  It  has  been  stated  that 
the  late^  Professor  Palmer  of  Oxford  was  slain  by  the  Arabs  for  a 
like  sacrificial  purpose. 

2  Golden  Bough ,  I.  22G  ;  Dio  Chrysostom ,  Orat.  469. 


160 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ethical  notion  was  almost  universally  obscured,  and 
then  supplanted,  by  the  ceremonial  rite. 

When  the  Jewish  high  priest  suggested  that  it  was 
expedient  that  one  man  should  die  that  the  whole 
nation  perish  not,  he  simply  proposed  to  make  of  Jesus 
a  human  scapegoat,  a  propitiatory  sacrifice,  and  a  piac- 
ular  substitution  for  the  nation.  This  ancient  folk- 
faith  of  primitive  peoples  has  survived  in  Christian 
Theology  to  our  own  day,  darkening  the  counsel  of 
God,  and  overshadowing  the  precious  and  profound 
significance  of  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary,  degrading  it 
from  a  revelation  of  God’s  character  into  the  ignoble 
pacification  of  an  irritated  God,  according  to  some 
bargain  made  in  the  midst  of  Trinal  Unity,  at 
“  Heaven’s  high  council-table,”  where  the  Eternal 
Son  agreed  to  assume  all  the  guilt  and  punishment 
for  sins  He  had  never  committed,  and  by  a  cruel 
death  to  bear  them  away  in  accepting  vicarious 
punishment.  Some  of  the  ante-Nicene  Christians 1 
invented  another,  but  scarcely  more  spiritual  theory, 
which  is,  that  Jesus,  by  being  sacrificed  as  a  scape¬ 
goat  to  Satan,  deceived  the  arch-fiend,  who  thereby 
lost  his  power  over  all  men.  This  common  belief 
appears  in  a  spirited  and  picturesque  passage  of  the 
Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  a  passage  which 
has  been  imitated  by  Milton  in  his  description  of 
Satan  quarrelling  with  sin. 


1  Cf.  Hagenbach,  History  of  Doctrines,  I.  2G0 ;  Haag,  II.  159  ff. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


161 


All  these  scattered  forms  of  folk-faith  and  myth 
came,  in  course  of  time,  to  concentrate  in  a  great 
and  splendid  mythos  of  the  woe  of  the  world.  In 
the  Norse  Edda,1  Odin  the  high  god  sings :  “  I  mind 
me  hanging  on  the  gallows-tree  nine  whole  nights, 
wounded  with  a  spear,  offered  to  Odin,  myself  to 
myself,  on  the  tree  whose  roots  no  man  knoweth 
[Yggdrasil,  the  Cosmic  Tree  symbol].  They  gave 
me  no  loaf,  they  held  no  horn  to  me.  I  peered  down, 
I  caught  the  mysteries  up  with  a  cry,  then  I  de¬ 
scended.  I  learned  nine  songs  of  might,  ...  I  got 
a  draught  of  the  precious  mead  blent  with  Odreari 
[Inspiration].  Then  I  became  fruitful  and  wise,  and 
waxed  great,  and  flourished.  Word  followed  fast 
upon  word,  and  work  followed  fast  upon  work, 
with  me.”  Now,  even  if  it  be  suspected  that 
somehow  the  tragedy  of  the  Christian  Gospels  had 
travelled  North,  and  entered  into  this  myth,  just 
as  in  some  mysterious  way  the  life  of  Buddha  has 
got  itself  enshrined  in  the  Legenda  Aurea ,2  in  the 
chapter  about  Sts.  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  it  is  clear 
that  the  Gospel  could  have  in  no  way  had  the  shap¬ 
ing  of  JEschylus’  great  tragedy  of  Prometheus  Bound. 
The  inner  idea  belongs  to  what  had  been  felicitously 
termed  the  Eternal  Consciousness,  for  the  ethos 
which  was  there  upheld  for  an  ideal  is  that  of  the 
son  of  a  god  bound  with  outstretched  limbs  upon  the 

1  Hava-mal ,  Vigfusson  and  Powell,  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale, 
I.  25.  2  Ch.  clxxx. 


162 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


jagged  rocks  of  the  world,  and  beaten  with  hot  sun- 
rays  and  scourged  with  icy  winds ;  and  the  mythos, 
ancient  as  the  Summero-Akkadian  days,  when  the 
epic  of  Izdubar  first  came  to  birth  ;  and  the  ethos  is 
as  far  travelled,  if  you  will  have  it  so,  as  Dsilyi4 
Neyani,  the  culture  hero  of  the  Navajo  sacred  dance.1 

A  modern  poet  makes  much  in  his  pessimistic  verse 
of  this  mythos  of  humanity,  crucified  by  god,  or  by 
fate,  or  by  force,  or  by  chance  :  — 

“As  once  the  high  God  bound 
With  many  rivet  round, 

Man’s  saviour,  and  with  iron  nailed  him  through, 

*  *  *  * 

So  the  strong  god,  the  Chance 
Central  of  Circumstance, 

Still  shows  him  exile  who  will  not  be  slave.” 

But  God  crucifies  man  never.  In  sin  it  is  man  who 
crucifies  God  ever  afresh,  by  barring  out  the  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  within  the  soul,  grieving  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God  whereby  we  are  sealed  unto  the 
day  of  redemption.  There  is  the  whole  world’s  width 
between  the  tragedy  of  Prometheus  in  the  Dionysiac 
mysteries,  and  the  Divine  tragedy  of  Calvary.  It  is 
a  mistake  common  to  many  students  of  comparative 
religion  to  confuse  the  ethos,  or  ethical  content,  of  a 
religious  custom  or  myth  with  its  external  moral 
teaching,  and  to  lose  the  mythos,  or  the  fundamental 

1  U.  S.  Reports ,  Bureau  of  Ethnology ,  1884 ;  Sayce,  Hibbert 
Lectures. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


163 


mythical  content,  in  the  details  of  subsequent  develop¬ 
ments  of  the  myth  in  the  minds  of  those  who  had  lost 
its  original  motif ;  in  a  word,  to  lose  the  spirit  in  the 
letter.  In  the  study  of  Christian  Theology,  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  comparative  religion,  as  well  as  of  the  histor¬ 
ical  development  of  Christian  Doctrines  themselves, 
calls  for  careful  recollection  of  these  distinctions. 
With  no  more  reason  can  we  trace  the  programme 
of  the  Divine  death  of  the  Gospels  to  the  Pro¬ 
methean  myth,  than  the  origin  of  Corregio’s  painting 
of  the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem  to  that  other  divine  na¬ 
tivity  which  the  master  hand  of  Phidias  carved  on  the 
pediment  of  the  Parthenon.  A  noble  Athenian  be¬ 
lieved  that  after  witnessing  the  drama  of  Prometheus 
he  should  be  ashamed  to  go  home  and  nurse  his  own 
petty  griefs  and  vexations.  Shall  we  in  the  shadow 
of  the  Cross  have  no  higher  idea  than  that  another 
pays  the  price  for  us,  another  suffers  in  our  stead, 
another  is  our  scapegoat  ?  Jesus  in  His  life-long 
passion  wrought  a  redemption,  but  published  no  the- 
ology  of  redemption.  Nor  did  He,  as  Strauss  suggests, 
set  Himself  to  fulfil  in  a  spectacular  way  the  pro¬ 
gramme  of  the  twenty-second  Psalm.  All  this  is  an 
ancient  error  which  has  come  down  to  us  from  the 
highlands  of  History,  confusing  and  confounding  sin 
and  pain,  assuming  that  pain  is  the  substitute  and 
recompense  for  sin,  and  thereby  generating  a  vast 
labyrinth  of  satisfaction,  and  merits,  and  justification, 
and  indulgences,  and  of  purgatory  doctrines  from  the 


164 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


pilgrimage  of  the  Hindu  Yam  a  to  Dante’s  Vision  and 
St.  Patrick’s  Purgatory  in  Ireland,  and  suggesting 
gross  and  grotesque  notions  1  of  soul’s  torment  for  sin 
in  this  world  and  beyond  it.  One  observation  alone 
is  here  necessary.  If  the  true  Christian  idea  of  sin 
be  that  it  is  wrong,  is  what  is  intrinsically  unholy, 
immoral,  an  offence  against  an  absolute  principle  of 
right,  then  clearly  no  such  idea  existed  in  primitive 
culture.  Primitive  man  has  no  sense  of  sin ;  he  has 
only  fear  of  penalty.  His  idea  of  forgiveness,  based 
upon  this  crude  notion,  has  survived  in  Christianity 
to  so  wide  an  extent  as  to  have  well-nigh  obscured 
the  whole  Christian  idea  of  sin  and  its  forgiveness. 
Of  one  thing  the  idea  of  the  divine  immanence  assures 
us :  pain  and  sorrow  are  not  the  manifestation  of  a 
wrathful  Deity,  and  therefore  not  a  satisfaction  in 
sacrifice.  Sorrow  is  not  sorrow’s  fruit.  Pain  is  joy 
seen  on  the  wrong  side ;  for  it  is  the  signal  of  life,  of 
that  Life  which  strives  within  the  world,  within  the 
consciousness  of  each  soul  with  groanings  too  large 
for  utterance.  Pain,  whether  of  body  or  of  soul,  is 

1  Every  religion  which  has  evolved  beyond  the  stage  of  fetishism 
has  its  story  of  purgatory.  The  Rajah  Judsislitar  and  Yama  in 
India,  the  Egyptian  land  of  Amenti,  the  descent  of  the  Assyrian 
Islitar,  the  Norse  myth  of  the  descent  of  Baldr,  Odysseus,  Er  the 
son  of  Armenius,  iEneas,  Perpetua,  and  Felicitas,  the  Monk  of 
Evesham,  Alberic  of  Monte  Casino,  Hildergarde,  St.  Bridget, 
Drihthelm  in  Neoglit,  Dante,  Swedenborg,  and  Mrs.  Olipliant’s 
Little  Pilgrim  are  of  the  more  familiar  visitors  to  the  world  of  the 
dead. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


165 


the  symbol  of  redemption.  Nightly  looks  clown  upon 
the  lands  and  waters  of  the  earth  a  dead  world ; 
upon  this  side,  at  any  rate,  of  the  moon,  life  is 
extinct;  there  is  no  pain.  We  turn  to  the  Cross, 
the  supreme  symbol  of  agony ;  here  is  life.  Never 
forget  that  this  is  the  significance  of  the  Cross.  In 
the  lands  of  the  Eastern  Church  you  would  not  be 
allowed  to  forget  it,  because  the  Greek  Christians 
always  place  a  slanting  bar  across  the  base  of  the 
cross  whenever  they  set  it  up  in  city  streets,  country 
roads,  or  on  church  domes.  This  bar  placed  slant¬ 
wise  represents  the  foot-rest  of  the  Cross,  which  was 
displaced  by  Jesus  in  the  stress  of  his  extreme  agony. 
Every  pain  is  a  step  by  which  we  mount  to  a  higher 
plane  of  life  where  existence  burns  more  intensely. 
If  this  step  be  not  taken  the  soul  falls  back  into  dis¬ 
organisation  and  death. 

II.  I  do  not  feel  myself  called  to  embark  upon  the 
shoreless  ocean  of  atonement  and  justification  doc¬ 
trines.  It  will  be  enough  to  examine  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  about  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins.  That  this  re¬ 
moval  was  His  purpose  and  work  is  evident  from  the 
very  name  given  to  Him.1 

St.  John  Baptist  hails  Him  as  the  Lamb  of  God 
Who  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  He  was  the 
Lamb  of  God,  not  as  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  sin, 
because  that  the  typical  male  lamb  of  the  Levitical 

1  St.  Matt.  i.  21,  avrbs  yap  acbaei  top  \aov  ai/rov  airb  rw v  ap-apnaiv 
avrCbv,  not  from  the  results  of  sin,  hut  from  sins  themselves. 


166 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ceremonial  never  was.1  Neither  was  He  a  piacular 
Lamb  of  God  in  any  fulfilment  of  Isaiah’s  prophecy. 
If  you  read  that  prophecy  attentively  you  will  see  that 
it  alludes  to  nothing  but  the  meekness  and  silence  of 
the  suffering  Messiah,  and  not  at  all  to  any  sacrificial 
character  or  act.  Nor  is  Jesus  the  Lamb  slain  in 
expiation  for  sin  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
because  that  would  imply  eternally  predestinated  sin, 
and  make  God  the  Author  of  evil.  No  ;  but  the 
Lamb  of  God  beheld  by  the  visionary  of  Patmos  in 
the  midst  of  the  Throne  is  a  symbol  of  the  eternal 
and  essential  self-outyield  of  God  through  His  Son ; 
the  leonine  power  of  the  Omnipotent,  manifested 
to  St.  John,  and  to  him  visible  only  as  a  lamb,  only  as 
love.2  Dispossess  your  mind  for  the  nonce  of  tradi¬ 
tional  exegesis,  and  you  will  discern  that  in  the  New 
Testament  the  Lamb  is  everywhere  a  symbol  of  love 
and  the  beloved.  The  sign  is  congruous  with  the 
thing  signified.  Therefore  the  profounder  sense  of 
the  Baptiser’s  misinterpreted  phrase  is,  that  Jesus  as 
the  Lamb  of  God  is  the  manifestation  of  the  essential 
character  of  the  indwelling  Life  of  the  world,  Who  is 
Eternal  Love,  God  our  Saviour,  the  Forgiver  of  Sins.3 

1  Lev.  xvi.  8-7;  iv.  28-36;  v.  6;  xii.  6  ;  xiv.  22,  12.  In  short, 
the  sin  offering  could  be  almost  anything  but  a  male  lamb. 

2  Rev.  v.  5,  6.  One  of  the  elders  said  unto  me,  behold  the 
lion  .  .  .  and  I  beheld,  and  lo,  a  lamb. 

3  This  truth  was  perceived,  if  I  understand  his  words,  by  the, 
founder  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  —  Fox,  Journal ,  28. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


167 


This  infinite  and  eternal  outyield  of  self,  this  inti¬ 
mate  nature  of  Life  itself,  which  is  essentially  expan¬ 
sive,  abundant,  outflowing,  this  sacrifice  which  is 
named  Love,  does  not  necessarily  involve  pain  and 
death. 1  In  finite  beings  this  sacrifice  may  be  at¬ 
tended  with  pain,  because  the  outgoing  self  dashes 
against  limitations,  but  in  the  Infinite  the  outgo  of 
self  is  unlimited,  unrestrained,  and  returns  within 

1  In  the  sacrifices  of  the  Israelites  the  first  idea  was  that  of  pre¬ 
senting  food  to  God.  Ex.  x.  9,  xviii.  12  ;  Lev.  iii.  11,  xxi.  6,  8,  17  ff., 
xxii.  25  ;  Judges  vi.  19  ;  Ezek.  xliv.  8,  7,  15,  16,  29,  30  ;  Jer.  vi. 
20  ;  Amos  v.  21,  etc.  Though  fruit  and  drink  were  offered  to  God, 
animals  were  preferred,  perhaps  because  they  were  means  of  a  more 
patent  transfer  of  life  to  God.  From  the  peculiar  construction  of  the 
Hebrew  in  Gen.  iv.  7  it  might  be  inferred  that  an  earlier  notion  of 
sacrifice  was  primarily  that  it  was  propitiatory,  and  that  originally 
animals  alone  were  held  to  be  acceptable  for  sacrifice.  In  animal 
sacrifice  among  the  Jews  the  chief  object  was  the  offering  of  life,  by 
means  of  the  blood  in  which  the  life  was  supposed  to  reside.  From 
the  Levitical  Code  to  the  Talmud  the  slaughter  of  the  sacrificial  vic¬ 
tim  was  regarded  as  merely  incidental,  and  it  was  performed  with  the 
least  possible  torture  to  the  animal ;  no  stress  whatever  being  laid 
upon  pain  and  death  in  this  sacrificial  custom.  The  offering  of  the 
blood  was  the  matter  of  highest  importance.  This  offering  was  not 
for  a  substitution,  but  for  a  gift  to  God  of  representative  life.  This 
may  be  seen  by  an  examination  of  the  ceremonials  of  the  Passover, 
the  Day  of  Atonement,  and  the  various  bloody  sacrifices.  This  idea 
of  the  self-yielding  of  life,  though  not  unperceived  by  the  Jewish 
doctors,  was  fulfilled  by  Jesus.  All  this  view  of  the  meaning  of  the 
sacrifice  of  Jesus  might  appear  to  contradict  Acts  xx.  28 ;  Epli.  i.  7  ; 
Ileb.  ix.  12  ;  1  Pet.  i.  18,  19  ;  Rev.  v.  9,  which  have  been  assumed  to 
signify  unquestionably  a  commercial  ransom.  All  these  texts  refer 
to  the  result  of  Christ’s  work  rather  than  to  the  process.  The 


168 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  bosom  of  God  as  His  supreme  jubilation.  Our 
Lord  in  His  double  nature  felt  both  the  Divine  and 
the  human  impulse  to  sacrifice ;  for  once  He  ex¬ 
claimed,  “I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptised  with,  and 
how  am  I  pained  until  it  be  consummated.”  1  It  can¬ 
not  be  denied  that  such  being  the  significance  of 
the  Lamb  symbol,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  Lamb 
Himself  should  be  put  to  death.  Yet  clear  as  was 
this  issue  at  times  in  His  consciousness,  as  in  the 
words  just  quoted,  in  other  hours  His  consciousness 
became  dimmed.  In  the  agony  in  the  garden  He 
prayed  that  if  it  were  possible  the  cup  might  pass 
from  Him,  and  on  the  cross  when  He  uttered  the  cry 
of  extreme  dereliction.  But  because  He  was  the 
supreme  Revelation,  the  Parousia  of  shoreless  Love, 
of  infinite  self-surrender  of  that  Life  which  is  self- 
subsistent,  death  was  the  inevitable  goal  towards 
which  He  in  His  true  humanity  developed.  Because 
He  is  the  utterance,  the  Logos  of  eternal  Love,  He  is 
indeed  the  Lamb  of  God,  but  His  blood  is  not  a 


result,  as  Theophylact  points  out,  was  release  from  slavery,  removal 
of  bondage.  A  complete  discussion  of  the  terms  Xi/rpwcm,  KaraX- 
Xay?7,  and  t\aafx6s  would  involve  a  dissertation  upon  Hellenistic 
Greek.  In  Heb.  ix.  10,  17,  diadrjKrj  should  be  translated  “cove¬ 
nant,”  and  diadefxe/jios  “covenanter.”  Cf.  Hatch,  Essays  in  Bibli¬ 
cal  Greek ,  47.  A  covenant  is  a  mutual  agreement,  and  not  of 
necessity  a  bargain  involving  some  “  consideration.” 

1  St.  Luke  xii.  50,  7 rws  avv^x0^0-1-  % U3S  orou  reXeaO y.  2 vv^x°y-aL  con¬ 
notes  that  tension  of  soul  in  one  who  is  holding  himself  prepared 
for  extreme  effort. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OE  SINS. 


169 


symbol  of  a  formal  forgiveness  of  sins  any  more  than 
it  is  of  a  material  fountain  of  cleansing.  But  it  is, 
if  the  sign  fits  the  thing  signified,  the  effluence  of  the 
life  powers  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  vitalise  human 
spirits,  welling  up  within  them  as  their  consciousness 
of  the  reality  of  God  grows  more  distinct;  a  foun¬ 
tain  which,  as  the  hymn  hath  it,  is 

“  of  sin  the  double  cure, 

Saves  from  wrath  and  makes  me  pure.” 

That  Jesus  perceived  His  own  mediatorial  saving 
work  lay  in  the  actual  losing  of  life,  is  clear  from  the 
words  with  which  the  account  of  the  last  Passover 
begins:  “Having  loved  His  own  which  were  in  the 
world,  He  loved  them  to  the  end J  unto  completion, 
unto  consummation  of  love,  which  is  utter  self-sur¬ 
render.1 2 

The  unvarying  teaching  of  Jesus  is  that  of  the  re¬ 
moval  of  sin ; 3  and  in  His  parables  He  makes  it  clear 
that  our  Father,  God,  never  changes  His  attitude 
towards  us,  because  God  is  changeless  Love.  The¬ 
ology  has  termed  this  changeless  Love,  ‘prevenient 
grace,’  and  4  pardon.’  Because  God  is  always  love  the 
pardon  is  awaiting  acceptance,  and  implies  change 
in  man,  not  in  God.  The  Immanent  God  is  par¬ 
don  awaiting  reception  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
soul  of  man.4  The  gospel  discloses  that  God  is 

1  els  t£\os.  Of.  rerAecrrat,  St.  John  xix.  30. 

2  St.  John  xiii.  1.  3  titpeais  tQv  a/xapriwi'.  4  Is.  lxv.  24. 


170 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


seeking  man,  not  that  man  is  looking  after  God. 
It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  and  emphasised 
that  this  is  clear  from  the  parables  of  the  Lost 
Coin,  the  Lost  Sheep,  and  of  the  Prodigal  Son, 
as  elsewhere  in  our  Lord’s  teachings.  When  Jesus 
by  miracle,  which  is  parable  in  action,  teaches  His 
redemptive  and  absolving  work,  He  forgives  sins 
not  by  a  fiction  of  a  forensic  declaration  or  by  the 
imputation  of  merits  and  the  pardoning  of  the  guilt 
alone,  as  folk-faith  and  Roman  law  have  led  men 
to  think,  but  He  absolves  sins  in  fact ;  that  is  to 
say,  He  removes  them.  Then  Divine  Love,  which 
is  pardon,  enters  the  consciousness  of  the  Soul. 
To  the  paralytic  He  says  in  effect,  “In  order  that 
men  may  know  that  I  do  remove  sins,  I  remove 
your  paralysis ;  arise  and  walk.”  Nowhere  does 
He  speak  of  Himself  as  a  substitute  for  men.  His 
life  and  ministry  were  the  ransom1  of  many  from 
sins.  This  Jesus  distinctly  teaches.2  Into  the  apos¬ 
tolic  development  of  the  idea  of  Christ’s  work  as 

1  \vrpov ,  literally  means  of  loosing. 

2  St.  Mark  x.  45,  a\\a  diaKovijacu  kcll  Sovvcu  tt)v  ^vxvv  clvtov  \vrpov 
avTl  7 roWuju.  Note  here  first  that  \vrpov,  ransom,  that  is,  means 
of  release,  stands  in  apposition  to  dLanovyjaai,  which  means  to  min¬ 
ister,  as  well  as  in  apposition  to  bovvaL ;  consequently  both  are  ele¬ 
ments  of  the  ransom,  and,  second,  observe  bodva i  ttjv  \pvx"0v,  to  give 
the  living  soul,  need  not  be  restricted  to  the  significance  of  dying, 
as  has  been  assumed,  as  though  it  were  a-rrobovvau  For  the  term 
covers  the  whole  lifelong  out-yield  of  self  which  uttered  itself  in 
its  consummation  on  Calvary.  Weiss,  Bibl.  Tlieol .,  I.  101,  n. 


t* 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS.  171 

a  Forgiver  of  sins,  that  is  to  say,  a  Remover,  Re¬ 
deemer,  I  cannot  now  enter;  but  I  venture  to  beg 
you  to  teach,  upon  this  foundation  that  I  have  endeav¬ 
oured  to  uncover,  a  theology  which  is  ethical,  and 
above  all  a  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  which  is  ethical. 
Jesus  suffered,  it  is  true,  vicariously,  but  not  substitu- 
tionally.1  The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
distinctly  puts  aside  all  survivals  of  primitive  folk- 
faith  whether  Semitic  or  Aryan,  and  every  notion  of 
Jesus  as  a  propitiatory  or  substitutionary  sacrifice  for 
satisfaction  or  for  compensation.2  The  old  sacrifices 
were,  he  says,  but  shadows  having  indeed  some  small 
moral  sanction,  but  now  that  the  real  ethical  Sacrifice 
is  manifested  and  established,  these  old  and  defective 
forms  and  notions  are  removed.3  It  is  said  that  Jesus, 
because  He  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  thus  is  Infinite, 
must  suffer  in  order  that  by  infinite  suffering  He  can 
atone  or  pay  the  price  for  our  sins  which,  in  their 
culpability,  are  infinite,  Godward.  But  if  our  sins  be 
infinite,  Godward,  then  are  also  our  good  deeds  and 

1  Weiss,  Bibl.  Theol.,  I.  421,  n.  2,  422,  n.  4,  424,  nn.  6,  7  ;  Ritsclfl, 
Critical  History  of  the  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification  and 
Reconciliation,  411.  Hodge,  Systematic  Divinity,  II.  470,  in 
order  to  escape  from  the  objectionable  theory  of  the  equivalent 
satisfaction,  distinguishes  between  penal  and  pecuniary  satisfaction. 
But  further  on  (II.  540  and  III.  175)  he,  for  other  exigencies,  flatly 
contradicts  himself  ;  first  he  repudiates  and  afterwards  asserts  a 
grossly  commercial  theory  of  the  Atonement. 

2  Pfleiderer,  Hibbert  Lectures  on  Influence  of  Apostle  Paul. 

3  Heb.  x.  9. 


172 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


virtues  infinite ;  and  since  two  infinities  are  equal, 
they  cancel  one  another.  However,  there  is  an  ob¬ 
jection  deeper  than  the  dialectic  to  this  theory ;  it  is 
that  God  does  not  suffer.  Whatever  suffers  can  die 
or  become  more  perfect.  Men  cannot  put  on  them¬ 
selves  the  merits  of  another,  even  of  the  Son  of  God, 
as  their  remote  ancestors  masked  themselves  with  the 
face  of  the  merciful  rain-god,  supposing  that  thus  for 
the  nonce  they  became  holy.1  Our  Lord  Jesus  is  the 
Mediator  of  a  better  covenant.  Avoid,  therefore,  ar¬ 
tificial  theories  of  forgiveness  and  absolution,  and 
learn  your  doctrine  of  the  atonement  not  from  Justin 
Martyr,  Anselm,  Aquinas,  Luther,  Calvin,  Bushnell, 
or  Magee,  but  from  the  New  Testament;  for  theolo¬ 
gians  have  been  propounding  a  doctrine  of  forgive¬ 
ness  which  belongs  to  that  stage  of  human  develop¬ 
ment  where  the  savage  paints  the  corpse  in  order 
that  in  the  other  world  the  deceased  may  appear 
righteous,  and  where  for  a  similar  intention  Clytem- 
nestra  covered  the  face  of  the  murdered  Agamemnon 
with  a  golden  mask,  —  if  we  may  believe  the  late  Dr. 
Schliemann. 

III.  We  ought  not  to  feel  surprised  that  the  theo¬ 
logians  of  the  early  Church  were  powerfully  influ¬ 
enced  by  both  their  notions  of  demonology,  and  by 
the  tradition  of  the  scapegoat,  in  their  reception  of 
the  redeeming  work  of  Christ.  Following  the  anal- 


1  E.  R.  Emerson,  3IasJcs ,  Heads ,  and  Faces ,  passim. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


173 


ogy  of  the  scapegoat,  many  of  them 1  taught  that 
Jesus  was  in  His  death  a  sacrifice  and  satisfaction 
paid  to  Satan.  Justin  Martyr  added,2  as  it  is  only 
right  to  say,  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  a  power 
which  removed  sins  of  men,  and  Irenseus3  also 
taught  that  the  life  of  Jesus,  meaning  thereby  the 
life  of  our  Lord,  according  as  it  was  lived  by  example, 
effected  remission  of  sins.  Ire  nee  us  goes  on  to  say  4 
that  the  purpose  of  the  Incarnation  was  to  reveal  to 
man  the  character  of  God,  in  order  that  man  might 
live  according  to  God.  This  doctrine  of  forgiveness 
is  repeated  by  Clement  the  Alexandrian.  Origen  in 
a  like  manner  was  conscious  of  the  ethical  manner 
of  Christ’s  operation  in  the  removal  of  sins  of,  says 
he,5  “all  those  who  not  only  believe,  but  enter 
upon  the  life  which  Jesus  taught,  and  which  ele¬ 
vates  to  friendship  with  God  and  to  communion 
with  Him  every  one  who  lives  according  to  the 
precepts  of  Jesus.”  The  epistle  of  Diognetus,  if  it 
belongs  to  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,6  is  a  strik¬ 
ing  example  of  the  early  emancipation  from  the 
notion  that  Christ’s  death  was  to  propitiate  an  angry 
God,  and  from  the  belief  that  the  Divine  Sacrifice  of 
Calvary  was  a  manifestation  of  eternal  wrath.  “  He 
hated  us  not,  nor  bore  us  malice.”  7  The  idea  of  sat- 


1  Buel,  Dogmatic  Theology,  c.  xvi. 

3  Against  Heresies ,  II.  22,  4. 

5  Against  Celsus ,  III.  28. 

0  See  Bishop  Lightfoot’s  Introduction. 


2  Apol.  I.  23. 
4  V.  16,  2. 

7  Ch.  ix. 


174 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


isfaction  or  compensation  for  sin,  in  order  to  satisfy 
a  principle  of  justice,  dimly  implied  in  Justin  Martyr,1 
is  liberated  by  Tertullian  2  into  a  moral  and  rational 
factor.  Tertullian  applies  the  term  satisf actio  “  to 
such  as  make  amends  for  their  own  sins  by  confession 
and  by  repentance  which  shows  itself  in  works.”3 
At  this  point  is  the  beginning  of  the  doctrine  of 
Penance,  as  mutual  public  acknowledgment  of 
wrong,  exomologesis,  was  the  starting-point  of  the 
custom.  It  was  Anselm,  in  his  Cur  Deus  Homo ,  who 
fixed  upon  the  later  Theology  of  the  Western  Church 
the  dogma  that,  although  there  might  be  other 
methods  of  salvation  within  the  resources  of  an  om¬ 
nipotent  God,  yet,  nevertheless,  the  Eternal  Father 
did  choose  the  death  of  Christ  to  manifest  His  love 
toward  man ;  and  that  since  Christ  was  sinless,  and 
death  is  God’s  reward  for  sin,  Christ  earned  by  a  sin¬ 
less  death  a  reward,  or  merit,  and  as  He  was  infinite, 
His  merit  was  infinite.  Human  nature  could  not 
have  been  restored  to  the  favour  of  God,  unless  com¬ 
pensation  had  been  made  for  its  sin,  that  is  to  say, 
its  merit  was  complete  destruction  or  else  infinite 
torment ;  but  by  the  love  of  Christ,  in  a  bargain 
with  the  Father,  His  infinite  merits  were  substituted 
in  place  of  the  infinite  demerits  of  mankind,  and  so 
the  price  was  paid  to  Justice,  and  the  compensation 

1  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  103. 

2  Tertullian,  Be  Pcen.  v.  et  seq. 

3  Hagenbacli,  Hist.,  I.  260. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


175 


accepted.  This  is  the  Anselmic  scheme  of  salvation. 
This  legal  theory  was  the  logical  outcome  of  the  idea 
of  a  remotely  transcendent  God,  with  Whom  our 
relations  are  according  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Roman  law.  u  That  the  satisfaction  made  to  God 
should  be  valid  for  men ;  it  was  not  necessary  that 
they  should  be  aware  of  this  meaning  of  the  death 
of  Christ ;  all  that  was  necessary  was  their  imitation 
of  the  self-surrender,  which  was  perfectly  realised  in 
Him.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  on  the  part  of  God, 
which  follows  upon  the  satisfaction  made,  does  not 
come  through  the  very  person  who  made  the  satisfac¬ 
tion,  but  comes,  so  to  speak,  alongside  of  Him.”  1 
Anselm’s  notions  of  Divine  ransom  were  undoubtedly 
shaped  by  the  Teutonic  custom  of  J  V erg  eld,  blood- 
money,  whereby  the  criminal  made  pecuniary  com¬ 
pensation  for  his  crime.  Abelard  reasonably  inquired 
why  it  was  that  our  Heavenly  Father  must  needs 
have  taken  this  tortuous  way  of  forgiving  our  sins. 
He  also  observes  that  if  Christ  ransomed  us  from  the 
power  of  the  devil,  His  redemption  availed  for  the 
non-elect  only,  because  over  the  elect  the  devil  had 
never  had  any  power.  If  this  objection  be  good, 
then  that  Catechism  which  terms  our  Lord  “  The 
Redeemer  of  the  Elect  ”  might  be  improved  in  phra¬ 
seology.  Further  into  this  savage  forest,  selva  selvag- 
gia  ed  aspra  e  forte ,  it  is  not  necessary  to  proceed. 

1  Ritsclil,  History  of  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification  and 
Reconciliation,  34. 


176 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Concerning  tlie  doctrines  of  the  Atonement  on  their 
Godward  side,  I  am  not  called  in  question;  and  if  I 
were,  I  should  be  incompetent  to  give  a  certain  solu¬ 
tion.  “  How  and  in  what  particular  way  it  [the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  Jesus  Christ]  has  this  efficacy  [expiation  of 
sin]  there  are  not  wanting  persons  who  have  endeav¬ 
oured  to  explain  ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  has  explained  it.  We  seem  to  be  very  much  in 
the  dark  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  ancients 
understood  atonement  to  be  made,  i.e.  pardon  to  be 
obtained  by  sacrifices.  And  if  the  Scripture  has,  as 
it  surely  has,  left  this  matter  of  the  satisfaction  of 
Christ  mysterious,  left  somewhat  in  it  unrevealed,  all 
conjectures  about  it  must  be,  if  not  evidently  absurd, 
yet  at  least  uncertain.” 1  The  history  of  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  those  doctrines,  and  likewise  of  theories  of  the 
Sacraments,  show  how  the  vast  and  world-wide  institu¬ 
tion  of  propitiatory  and  expiatory  sacrifices  inclines 
Christian  thought  to  take  some  formal  method  of  salv¬ 
ing  the  conscience,  and  to  substitute  ritual  acts  for 
moral  redemption.  Has  this  coil  come  from  beginning 
Theology  at  the  wrong  end  ?  I  suspect  so.  Although 
the  first  idea  in  Holy  Scriptures  is  the  idea  of  God, 
for  centuries  past  the  world  has  been  taught  to  begin 
its  religion  with  the  idea  of  sin.  Perhaps  a  survival 
of  the  mental  disposition  of  primitive  man  was  the 
origin  of  this  error ;  perhaps  also,  if  we  may  say  it 
without  failing  in  respect  to  one  of  the  greatest 


1  Bishop  Butler,  Analogy,  V.  6. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


177 


intellects  in  the  whole  history  of  the  development 
of  Christian  Theology,  St.  Augustine’s  exceptional 
personal  experience  in  unsaintliness  had  something 
to  do  with  the  choice  of  this  special  point  of  view. 
It  has  been  accepted  as  an  axiom  that  Augustine 
carried  into  practice  the  theory  of  Plato,  u  Quidquid 
a  Platone  dicitur,  vivit  in  Augustino” ;  but  in  this 
special  subject  it  is  difficult  to  see  Plato  in  Augus¬ 
tine’s  theory  of  sin  and  its  remedy.  At  any  rate, 
Christian  instruction  has  been  made  to  begin  with  — 

“  Man’s  first  disobedience,  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe.” 

A  candid  student  finds  it  difficult  to  understand 
why  emphasis  was  laid  upon  this  narrative,  rather 
than  upon  that  of  the  fall  of  the  angels  where  the  pre- 
Christian  Jews  placed  it,  or  upon  the  sin  of  Babel, 
or  upon  the  deluge,  each  of  which  is  equally  a  pre- 
Abrahamic,  Chaldean  antiquity.  And  so,  for  genera¬ 
tions,  even  innocent  babes  and  sucklings  have  been 
diligently  taught  as  the  first  thing  which  they  ought 
to  know,  in  order  that  they  might  be  good,  and  go 
to  Heaven, — 

“  In  Adam’s  fall 
We  sinned  all.” 

One  word  to  close  this  section.  The  distinction 
between  Christianity  and  paganism  lies  in  this,  that 
in  paganism  man  is  seeking  after  God,  and  in  Chris- 


178 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


tianity  it  is  revealed  that  God  is  seeking  after  man. 
To  me,  most  of  these  atonement  theories  to  which  I 
have  alluded  look  very  like  man  seeking  after  God. 
It  was  not  the  Father  God,  but  the  Jews  who 
cursed  Jesus ;  it  is  not  the  Father  God,  but  the 
u  father  of  lies,”  who  destroys  both  soul  and  body  in 
hell. 

IY.  a.  How  shall  we  teach  Christ’s  doctrine  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins?  Hitherto  much  mischief  has 
arisen  from  too  much  method.  The  ground  of  sin, 
reatns ,  peccatum ,  culpa ,  poena ,  original  sin,  actual  sin, 
guilt,  and  penalty,  have  been  harmfully  sundered.  It 
is  dangerous  to  dissect  a  living  man,  and  vivisection 
of  the  soul  always  makes  mischief  in  Theology.  Let 
us  cease  to  seek  for  precision  by  this  method  of 
anatomy.  Original  sin  is  a  fact.  Original  righteous¬ 
ness  is  equally  a  fact.  Original  sin  is  something 
which  no  one  who  has  observed  the  result  of  habit  in 
shaping  the  will  and  moulding  the  character  that  pass 
from  parent  to  child,  would  ever  think  of  denying ; 
but  to  take  up  the  words  of  the  Ninth  Article  of 
Religion,  and  say,  in  the  old  traditional  sense,  that 
this  of  itself  is  guilt,  that  these  inherited  tendencies 
are  subject  to  full  moral  responsibility,  and  that  in 
this  way  they  deserve  God’s  wrath  and  damnation,  is 
nothing  less  than  to  go  straight  against  the  Lord 
Jesus’  rebuke  of  that  very  theory  of  primitive  culture 
which  had  been  revived  by  the  Jews  in  the  case  of 
the  man  born  blind.  The  words  of  our  Lord  were : 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


179 


“  Neither  hath  this  man  sinned  nor  his  parents,  but 
that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made  manifest  in 
him.”1  In  a  sense  profoundly  true,  sins,  whether 
hereditary  or  actual,  guilt  and  penalty,  are  all  bound 
together  in  the  bundle  of  life.  Godward  they  are 
identical.  Time,  which  belongs  to  the  condition  of 
human  thought,  may  separate  them  through  the 
human  apprehension,  yet  in  Eternity  they  are  one. 

5.  Sin  is  its  own  terrible  penalty,  and  the  penalty 
of  sin  is  sin,  an  awful  impetus  of  degeneracy,2  which, 
if  unchecked,  goes  down  to  death.  It  has  been  said 
with  approval  that  guilt  is  the  fear  of  punishment.3 
Better  would  it  be  to  lay  aside  this  sentiment  of 
primitive  culture  and  say  guilt  is  the  anticipation  of 
the  consequence  of  sin  ;  better  still,  that  it  is  the  sense 
of  self-degradation,  the  strong  desire  to  sin  again, 
which  the  loss  of  God-consciousness  entails.  Liability 
to  penalty  is  a  common  definition  of  sin,  but  this  is 
the  legal  idea.  In  saying  that  sin  is  its  own  punish¬ 
ment,  we  find  guilt  to  be  liable  to  punishment 
translated  into  terms  of  personal  experience,  which 
teaches  progressive  propensity  to  sin. 

c.  There  is  a  further  lesson  in  our  Lord’s  words 
concerning  the  man  born  blind  which  is  timely  for 
these  days  of  pessimism.  Pessimism  doubts  and  de¬ 
spairs  of  life,  because  it  cannot  solve  this  problem  of 

1  St.  John  ix.  3. 

2  Drummond,  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World ,  97  ff. 

3  Archbishop  Seeker,  Works,  VI.  146. 


180 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


pain  in  the  world,  and  declares  that  our  earth  is  the 
City  of  Dreadful  Night,  whose  sole  gospel  is  suicide. 
Even  this  consolation  is  denied  us  by  Schopenhauer, 
on  the  ground  that  self-destruction  is  an  assertion  of 
the  “will  to  live/’  For  him  the  misery  of  life  lies  in 
the  “  will  to  live,”  and  the  world  is  the  “  will  to  live.” 
How  near  was  Schopenhauer  to  the  mind  of  Christ 
only  to  completely  miss  it!  The  doctrine  of  Jesus  is 
that  pain  is  an  element  of  personal  redemption.  The 
world  is  the  “  will  to  live,”  but  to  live  aright.  The 
evolution  of  life  is  a  grand  manifestation  of  the  works 
of  God  as  it  mounts  upward  upon  the  steps  of  pain, 
the  world’s  great  altar  stairs  that  slope  through  dark¬ 
ness  up  to  God,  where  the  Hidden  Love  manifests 
Himself  in  the  cosmical  process  of  Sacrifice.  It  is  to 
Richard  Wagner  that  modern  thought  owes  a  debt 
for  having  brought  to  its  consciousness  the  almost 
forgotten  truth  of  the  gospel,  that  pain  is  not  a  curse, 
but  a  way  of  redemption.  This  is  the  answer  which 
St.  Paul  made  for  pessimists  of  the  first  century. 
Creation  is  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  wilfully  or 
arbitrarily,  but  by  reason  of  Him  who  hath  subjected 
the  same  in  hope,  etc.  The  old  theories,  which  in 
their  doctrines  of  satisfaction  confused  sin  and  pain, 
had  nevertheless  in  their  heart  this  truth,  that  pain  is 
an  element  in  the  remission  of  sins,  in  the  redemption 
of  the  body.  It  is,  however,  more  an  exponent  than 
a  factor  in  redemption.  As  I  have  already  said, 
wherever  in  the  world  is  life  and  growth,  there  is 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


181 


pain.  Pain,  then,  is  the  evidence  of  the  stress  of  the 
upward  movement  of  life,  of  the  conversion  of  material 
to  spiritual.  Pain  accompanies  the  forgiveness  of 
sin,  not  as  a  compensation  or  vengeance,  but  as  that 
birth-pang  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks.  The  evolution 
of  the  world  is  an  ewige  geburt .  All  progress  in  the 
history  of  humanity  has  come  from  men  of  sorrows. 
The  secret  of  Jesus  was  to  go  to  meet  pain,  to  take 
up  the  cross ;  and  the  crucifixion  is  the  highest  ex¬ 
pression  of  infinite  love.  The  Cross  is  the  revelation 
of  the  nature  of  the  Eternal  One.  To  the  pessimism 
of  our  day  and  of  all  days  the  Cross  reveals  the  true 
significance  of  suffering,  “  That  the  works  of  God 
might  be  made  manifest.”  Through  suffering,  Jesus 
Christ,  the  leader  of  the  drama 1  of  history,  the  leader 
of  our  salvation  therefore,  is  perfected.  The  Supreme 
Sufferer  is  the  sinless  sufferer,  Immanent  Eternal 
Love  manifested  in  Time ;  therefore  it  could  not  be 
that  He  is  cursed  of  God.  Sin  brings  suffering,  but 
not  all  suffering  is  brought  by  sin. 

d.  Evil  in  the  world,  I  mean  cosmical  evil,  is  only 
privative.  “  Evil  is  null,  is  nought,  is  silence  imply¬ 
ing  sound”  ;  this  is  true  Augustinian  doctrine.  Evil 
results  from  finiteness,  and  it  is  the  inalienable  com¬ 
plement  of  present  limitations.  But  when  the  will 
takes  up  this  negative,  and,  by  what  I  may  term  a 
psychological  magic,  transmutes  evil  into  sin,  then 


1  apxvyfc,  Heb.  ii.  10  ;  xii.  2.  cf.  Vaughan  in  loc. 


182 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  quality  becomes  positive.1  Sin  is  not  a  substance 
or  thing;  it  is  not  a  poison  or  a  dye.  All  Theology 
founded  on  such  notions  veers  away  from  the  realities 
of  life.  Sin  is  the  quality,  or  the  manner,  of  the 
exercise  of  the  will,  which  results  in  disturbance  of 
relations,  and  in  an  attitude  of  disfavour ;  that  is  to 
say,  of  dis-grace  towards  God  the  Righteous  One.  Sin 
is  a  discord  which  wounds  the  harmony  of  the  Divine 
and  human  wills.  The  human  will  in  Him,  Christ, 
made  one,  atoned,  if  you  wish  it,  with  the  Father’s, 
“  in  which  will  we  are  made  holy.’’  2 

e .  Sin  deadens  the  God-consciousness  by  sunder¬ 
ing  between  God  and  the  conscious  soul.  This  sever¬ 
ance  results  in  loss  of  perception  of  the  good.  By 
sin  we  consequently  lose  faith  in  God  and  in  man, 
faith  in  moral  perfectibility,  if  not  even  in  moral 
possibility,  and  in  our  divine  sonship.  Tennyson,  in 
his  Vision  of  Sin,  and  Browning,  in  his  SouVs  Trag¬ 
edy ,  trace  out  this  process  of  a  soul’s  death.  To 
attain  to  God-consciousness  we  must  have  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  simply  because  that  consciousness  is  of 
the  sort  which  is  effected  by  the  actualisation  in 
moral  and  spiritual  existence  of  the  individual  man, 
of  the  historic  life  of  Jesus  Christ.3  St.  Paul  teaches 

1  dfxapTLa  nowhere  in  the  New  Testament  has  a  negative  sense. 
—  Keim,  Jesus  of  Nazara,  V.  408. 

2  Heb.  x.  10,  ev  <£  deXrumaTL  ijyLaa/x^voi  icr/itv. 

3  Indeed,  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith,  when  unswathed 
from  its  theological  mummy  wrappings,  is  found  to  be  precisely 
this  rational  truth.  To  this  end  was  his  K^vuats,  humiliation.  Every 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


188 


that  the  man  Christ  Jesus  is  our  Mediator,  as  Theo- 
doret  says,  eTravOpcoir^aa^  yap  epiecrirevaev.  This 
truth  has,  from  the  survival  of  the  pagan  notion  of 
divine  mediators,  been  in  danger  of  oblivion,  and  so 
the  New-Testament  doctrine  of  mediation  has  been 
obscured  by  later  theologians.1  If  you  are  interested 
in  the  study  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  con¬ 
sider  it  from  this  point,  —  Jesus  the  Mediator  in  His 
humanity.  In  His  whole  life  and  death  He  is  the 
self-revelation,  the  visible  image  of  the  invisible 
Saviour  God ;  hence  it  is  said  that  the  destiny  of 
man  is  to  live  according  to  the  life  of  God.2  Thus 
God  and  man  are  at  one  in  will  and  in  purpose ; 
they  are  united  in  practical  consciousness,  for  God- 
consciousness  is  no  mere  intellectual  illumination  or 
mystic  trance,  but  a  sense  of  righteousness  which 
comes  from  living  the  Chris tly  life.  At  its  begin¬ 
ning  it  is  written,  “Ye  shall  be  as  gods  knowing 
good  from  evil,”  and  at  its  end,  “  Be  ye  perfect,  even 
as  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect.” 

f.  Since  sin  is  a  quality  of  action  caused  by  choice, 
its  fundamental  relations  to  life  may  be  defined. 
Again,  I  say  life  is  essentially  appetite,  desire,  will, 
love,  —  all  phases  of  the  one  thing.  Therefore  sin 

life  must  pass  through  the  Christ-process,  which  is  a  filling  up  of 
the  Kenosis,  albeit  in  a  less  perfect  way  ;  in  this  lie  is  our  only 
Mediator  and  Redeemer :  a  Mediator  of  a  better  covenant  than  that 
of  substitutionary  and  piacular  immolation. 

1  See  Bishop  Ellicott’s  Notes  on  1  Tim.  ii.  5,  6. 

2  1  Ret.  iv.  6,  £r)v  Kara  0eoV. 


184 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


may  be  described  as  life  defective,  or  life  distorted,1 
which,  you  perceive,  is  the  same  as  saying  that  sin  is 
love,  or  will,  or  desire,  or  appetite,  defective  or  dis¬ 
torted  ;  for  example,  hate  is  love  defective  ;  avarice, 
love  distorted.  In  his  Inferno  and  Purgatorio ,  Dante 
has  fully  and  scientifically  illustrated  this  theory  of 
sin.  Love  he  symbolises  by  warmth  and  fire,  the 
want  of  love  by  torpor  and  cold.  Those  who  had 
sinned  by  love  distorted  are  tormented  with  flames, 
those  by  love  defective  are  tortured  with  cold  and  ice. 
The  arch-traitor  is  the  farthest  away  from  God,  and 
at  the  point  of  indifference,  the  place  of  intensest 
cold.  And  the  love  of  God  which  to  the  sinners  is 
pain,  to  the  penitents  of  purgatory  becomes  a  cleans¬ 
ing  flame  ;  and  in  paradise  thrills  the  elect  saints 
with  the  warmth  and  ecstasy  from  the  Divine  Life 
which  is  love.  Jesus  came  to  supply  the  life  defec¬ 
tive,  that  we  might  have  life,  and  have  it  more  abun¬ 
dantly,  to  straighten  the  love  distorted  by  justifying, 
or,  as  we  would  say,  rectifying  it ;  that  is,  making  it 
right  or  just.  This  is  what  it  is  to  take  away  sins. 
In  both  Greek  and  Hebrew  the  words  for  forgiveness 
signify  removal,  and  nowhere  do  I  find  them  used  to 
denote  a  removal  of  guilt  alone  or  of  penalty  alone. 

g.  God  Himself  cannot  forgive  sins  which  are 
unforgivable  since  they  remain  in  the  soul.  Yet 
His  love  changes  not,  only  we  are  not  receptive  of 

1  A  Theory  of  Sin,  by  Orbey  Shipley,  would  be  interesting  to 
read  in  connection  with  this. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


185 


that  love  which,  relative  to  sins  removed,  we  name 
pardon ;  the  love  which  abiding  in  us  we  become 
conscious  of  only  as  sins  are  done  away.  We  may 
with  more  ease  forgive  those  who  have  wronged  us 
than  those  whom  we  have  wronged.  In  some  true 
sense,  it  may  be  said  that  we  find  it  hard  to  forgive 
God  Whom  we  have  wronged.  Only  as  we  yield  to 
that  Divine  Life  which  presses  against  the  soul, 

“  With  scarce  an  intervention,  presses  close  and  palpitatingly  ;  ” 

only  then  are  our  sins  forgiven,  and  the  Divine  Life 
enters  into  the  soul,  and  enters  according  to  the 
measure  that  we  lift  up  the  gates  of  the  soul  by  meta- 
noia  and  lovingness.  This  assortment  is  ethical,  that 
is  to  say,  it  is  actual ;  it  means  that  the  Life  of  God 
has  entered  into  the  consciousness  of  man ;  it  means 
that  man’s  will  is  made  straight,  justified,  and  that  is 
the  same  as  to  say  that  he  lives  according  to  God. 
The  greater  the  metanoia,  the  deeper  the  soul  realises 
or  understands  the  Divine  Love ;  “  for  to  whom 
little  is  forgiven,  the  same  loveth  little.” 1  Aris¬ 
tides,  in  his  Apology  for  the  early  Christians,  says 
of  them:  “Those  who  grieve  them,  they  comfort 
and  make  their  friends.”  2  What  Heathen  or  Jewish 

1  St.  Luke  vii.  47.  In  this  place  the  “for,”  5<f,  indicates  not 
the  ground,  hut  the  effect  of  forgiveness. 

2  It  is  curious  that  in  the  Septuagint  the  Hebrew  word  for 
justice,  which  is  usually  translated  by  diKcuoavvr 7,  righteousness,  is 
nine  times  translated  by  eXe-rjuocrvvTi,  and  three  times  by  e\eos,  lov¬ 
ing  kindness,  charitableness,  and  mercy. 


186 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


moralist  had  ever  before  dreamed  of  such  a  sublime 
charity !  It  is  God’s  charity  revealed  in  Jesus.  It 
is  the  sinner  who  is  to  be  pitied,  not  the  righteous 
who  is  sinned  against.  It  is  the  sinner  who,  in  the 
quest  of  the  Holy  Grail,  is  lost  in  blindness,  though 
the  chalice  of  Divine  Life  floats  ever  near  him ;  for 
the  blessedness  of  the  Divine  Vision  is  revealed  only 
to  those  who  are  pure  in  heart.  The  selfish  cannot 
grieve  because  they  are  blind  and  dead.  The  harder 
hearted  the  sinner,  the  more  jocund.  Perhaps  no 
two  men  ever  lived  harder,  narrower,  and  more  self¬ 
ish  during  their  career  of  success  than  Charles  the 
Second  of  England  and  Napoleon  the  First  of  France. 
Millions  adored  them  and  would  have  gladly  died 
for  them.  They  loved  no  man.  No  grief  or  pain 
of  sympathy  clouded  their  intense  self-satisfaction. 
What  place  in  God’s  providence  have  such  souls? 
Where  in  them  is  the  place  of  one  small  seed  of  self¬ 
redemption?  Shall  they  as  bubbles  on  the  infinite 
ocean  of  the  Eternal  Being  burst,  and  their  individ¬ 
ual  existence  be  gone  forever?  This  is  one  of  the 
deepest  of  the  deep  enigmas  of  life,  and  it  leads  us 
to  turn  with  a  sense  of  relief  from  Philosophy  and 
History  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  God  seeks  for 
man.  It  is  the  sinner  who  draws  from  our  Father 
God,  the  “  Tear  of  Divine  Compassion  ” ;  it  is  not 
jealousy  for  his  own  glory.1 

1  Hagenbach,  I.  2G6.  Origen,  Comm,  on  St.  Matt.  vi.  14, 
teaches  forgiveness  of  enemies  as  one  of  the  means  of  obtaining 
forgiveness  for  one’s  own  sins. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


187 


“  Alas  !  alas  ! 

Why,  all  the  souls  that  were,  were  forfeit  once ; 

And  lie  who  might  the  vantage  best  have  took 
Found  out  the  remedy.  How  would  yon  be, 

If  He  which  is  the  top  of  judgment  should 
But  judge  you  as  you  are?” 

h.  Abstractly  speaking,  perfect  forgiveness  of 
sin  would  mean  the  restoration  of  things  to  their 
pristine  condition.  In  fact,  forgiveness  is  something 
more  and  something  less.  It  is  something  more  be¬ 
cause  Divine  Life,  “  our  daily  bread,”  has  entered 
into  the  soul’s  consciousness. 

“  Impulses  of  deeper  birth 
Have  come  to  him  in  solitude.” 

The  forgiven  sinner,  by  the  stress  of  his  redemp¬ 
tive  effort,  has  risen,  as  St.  Augustine  has  some¬ 
where  said,  upon  stepping-stones  of  his  dead  self 
to  higher  things.  The  pardon  itself  is  progressive 
because  the  forgiveness  is  a  process ;  is,  in  short,  the 
removal  of  sin.  Like  Donatello  of  Hawthorne’s 
Marble  Faun ,  the  man  who  has  passed  through  sin 
and  its  forgiveness,  though  he  can  never  again  be 
innocent,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  with  a  knowledge  of 
evil,  he  has  got  the  knowledge  of  good,  and  has  tasted 
that  gracious  sense  of  pardon  which  accompanies 
removal  of  sin  and  the  quickening  of  God-conscious¬ 
ness.  He  has  learned,  also,  that  he  is  not  a  law  unto 
himself ;  that  there  is  a  Power  outside  him  not  him- 


188 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


self  that  makes  for  righteousness  ;  that  forces  for  good 
do  mysteriously  prevail  in  this  world,  else  long  ago 
it  would  have  passed  away  into  nothing.  An  un¬ 
noticed  sign  of  the  existence  of  God  pervading 
the  world,  is  the  gradual  but  evident  extermination 
of  evil  from  the  world.  We,  individual  men,  repent 
and  abandon  our  sin,  and  we  are  assured  that  in  con¬ 
sequence  our  relation  to  God  is  right.  But  what 
becomes  of  the  results  of  our  sin,  the  ever-widening 
circle  of  the  wave  of  a  bad  influence  ?  If  moral  forces 
be  indestructible,  as  physical  force  is  said  to  be,  then 
long  ago  the  world  must  have  become  utterly  corrupt 
and  filled  with  violence.  On  the  contrary,  the  history 
and  the  present  conditions  of  human  society  demon¬ 
strate  that  the  world  is  always  growing  better,  that  a 
mysterious  process  of  moral  and  spiritual  improve¬ 
ment  is  going  on.  How  can  we  account  for  this 
removal  of  moral  evil  from  the  world,  this  extinction 
of  sin,  save  by  the  presence  of  the  Immanent  Holy 
One,  Who  somehow  neutralises  the  evils  that  men  do 
which  live  after  them,  and  which  they  are  not  able 
afterwards  to  remedy. 

The  immanence  of  God  in  His  world  is,  therefore, 
like  the  presence  of  the  holy  waters  of  Ezekiel’s  vision, 
a  presence  at  once  vivifying  and  purifying.  It  is  only 
this  which  gives  us  hope,  and  can  save  a  tender  and 
loving  soul  from  utter  despair.  The  beautiful  idyl 
of  the  gospel  brings  to  us  light  as  from  beyond  the 
years,  and  hope  profound  as  the  fathomless  love  of 
God. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


180 


“Is  not  God  i’  the  world  His  power  first  made? 

Is  not  His  love  at  issue  still  with  sin 

Visibly,  when  a  wrong  is  done  on  earth?” 

Again  and  again  by  St.  Paul  is  God  named  the 
Saviour,  and  yet  we  forget  Jesus  is  a  Saviour,  just 
because  He  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Saviour  God. 
From  this  thought  man  learns  also  that  somehow  he 
has  fallen  back  in  the  onward,  upward  movement  of 
the  universe  of  that  Hidden  Love  by  Whom  are  all 
things,  through  Whom  are  all  things,  and  in  Whom 
are  all  things.  The  prodigal  returns  to  his  father’s 
house ;  but  though  thankful  for  the  father’s  love,  the 
reformed  son  can  never  be  as  if  he  had  not  once 
wasted  his  substance  in  riotous  living.  The  story  of 
Eden  represents  a  psychical,  if  not  an  historical  fact. 
Sin  means  loss,  irretrievable  loss  ;  it  means  also  incli¬ 
nation  to  further  sin.  In  Jesus  alone  we  trust. 
Against  the  impulse  to  sin,  which,  by  the  heredity 
of  original  sin  is  so  strong  within  us,  He  fought  and 
conquered,  He  alone ;  the  brute  inheritance  He  cast 
away.  Therefore  so  can  we.  Thus  He  is  our  soul’s 
Saviour,  our  only  Redeemer,  and  in  His  will,  as  we 
make  it  ours,  are  we  made  holy.  Let  us  then  against 
a  despondent  pessimism,  and  an  equally  desperate 
positivism,  preach  Jesus,  Who  in  His  holiness  demon¬ 
strated  moral  possibility  and  human  perfectibility,  in 
the  removal  of  sins,  and  let  us  try  to  make  clear  what 
is  that  first  function  of  the  Church  of  God.  Magnifi¬ 
cent  were  the  commission  and  power  with  which 


190 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Christ  endowed  His  Church,1  when  He  breathed  upon 
it  and  said,  “  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost :  whose 
soever  sins  ye  remit  they  are  remitted  unto  them; 
and  whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.” 
Not  by  any  potent  word  of  sacramental  absolution 
are  the  sins  of  the  world  done  away ;  that  word, 
at  its  highest  power,  is  but  the  assurance  of  a 
hope.  But  the  actual  removal  of  sins  and  evils 
is  the  serious  and  solemn  work  which  has  been 
given  to  the  Church  to  perform  in  this  world. 
The  sorrows  of  human  souls,  their  doubts,  their 
fears,  their  desperation,  their  grief,  their  moral  blind¬ 
ness, —  these  the  Church  is  bidden  to  remove.  The 
diseases,  the  pains,  the  social  injustice  and  oppres¬ 
sion,  the  inequalities  and  the  harshness  of  commercial 
and  social  life,  and  all  the  manifold  ills  which  in  all 
days  make  human  life  sad, — these  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Church  to  remove ;  these,  first  of  all,  gentlemen, 
in  as  far  as  you  are  endowed  by  the  Church  with  a 
power  of  absolution,  it  is  your  duty  to  remove.  Too 
long  has  the  parousia  of  Christ  been  withheld  from 
the  world  by  the  persistence  in  men’s  hearts  of  faith 
in  survivals  of  magic  and  of  mechanical  religiosity. 
Too  long  the  triumph  of  the  Church  has  been  delayed 
by  the  blindness  of  theologians  and  their  indifference 
to  social  wrongs. 

“  ’Tis  not  by  guilt  the  onward  sweep 
Of  truth  and  right,  O  Lord,  we  stay ; 

1  St.  John  xx.  22,  23.  Cf.  St.  Matt.  xvi.  19  ;  xviii.  18,  19. 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS. 


191 


’Tis  by  our  follies  that  so  long 

We  hold  the  earth  from  Heaven  away.” 

Let  us  then  in  our  teaching  reduce  our  Theology, 
if  I  may  so  say  it,  to  sociology.  Let  us  strive  to 
make  clear  the  moral,  not  magical,  effect  of  the 
Divine  Passion,  thus  freeing  God  from  the  inability 
to  save  His  children,  where  the  dogmas  of  scholas¬ 
tic  theory  have  imprisoned  Him  in  that  marvellous, 
complex,  and  perplexing  edifice  of  a  Theology  whose 
foundation  is  a  substitutionary  sacrifice,  and  whose 
windows  are  materialistic  theories  of  the  Sacraments. 


* 


. 


\ 


* 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


EiSos  yap  tl  p.era\ SoX^s,  Kal  ttclvtcjv  vcrraTOV,  rj  avaaracris  77  re  tu>u 
Kar  €K€ivov  rbv  xpovov  tt epidvroov  ctl  7 rpos  rb  Kpeirrov  pLeTafioXTr]. 

Athenagoras,  On  Resurrection ,  XII. 


The  peculiar  doctrine  of  Christianity  is  the  Resurrection  of  the 
body,  not  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Edgar,  The  Gospel  of  a  Risen  Saviour. 


Sit  if  ye  will,  sit  down  upon  the  ground, 

Yet  not  to  weep  and  wail,  but  calmly  look  around. 
Wliate’er  befell, 

Earth  is  not  hell ; 

Now,  too,  as  when  it  first  began, 

Life  is  yet  life,  and  man  is  man. 

Eor  all  that  breathe  beneath  the  heaven’s  high  cope, 
Joy  with  grief  mixes,  with  despondence  hope. 

Hope  conquers  cowardice  ;  joy  grief ; 

Or  at  least,  faith  unbelief. 

Though  dead,  not  dead  ; 

Not  gone,  though  fled  ; 

Not  lost,  though  vanished. 

In  the  great  Gospel  and  true  creed, 

He  is  yet  risen  indeed  ; 

Christ  is  yet  risen. 

A.  H.  Clough,  Easter  Day. 


194 


’AXXa  (pvaei  odv  tls  ijpuv,  dvrjros  <pvaeL  iytpero  6  dvdpwwos  ;  ovdayCvs. 
t L  odv  adavaro s;  ovdb  tovto  (pap.£v.  a XXa  epei  tls  ovbbv  odv  eyeveTo , 
ov8b  tovto.  eyed  p.kv,  ovTe  odv  cpvcreL  dvrjTbs  eytveTo  ovtc  adavaTos.  el 
yap  ddavarov  avrov  air’  apxys  ewewoLr/KeL ,  Qebv  avrov  ewewoLTjKeL  ’  tt&\lv 
el  dvr)Tov  avTov  wewoL7]Kei ,  eboxei  cLv  6  Geos  eivai  toO  davaTov  avTov’  ovTe 
odv  add vaTOv  avrov  ewolrjaev ,  ovre  p.r]v  dvrjrbv,  aXXa  Kadus  ewavoj  wpoeL- 
prjKapLev,  denriKov  dpLLportpo) v’  'Iva  ptyy  ewl  ra  rijs  adavaalas ,  T-pp'/jaas 
tt]v  ivroXyv  tov  Oeov ,  p.urdov  Kop.L<rr]TaL  wap ’  avrov  r tjv  adavacriav ,  /ca2 
y tv-qTai  0e6s  *  ei  5’  ad  Tpawrj  ewl  ra  too  davarov  wpayp.ara ,  wapanovaas 
tov  Oeov,  avrbs  eavrip  aHnos  77  tov  davarov. 

Theophilus  of  Antioch, 

To  Autolycus ,  Bk.  II. 


Sive  ergo  caro,  secundum  communem  Mem,  sive  corpus,  secundum 
Apostolum,  dicitur  quod  resurget,  ita  credendum  est,  sicut  Aposto¬ 
lus  defmivit,  quia  quod  resurget,  in  virtute  resurget,  et  in  gloria ; 
et  incorruptibile  resurget  et  spiritale  corpus  ;  quia  corruptio  incor- 
ruptionem  non  possidebit. 

The  Preface  of  Rufinus  to  St.  Pamphilus’  Apology  for 
Origen,  Routh’s  Beliquice  Sacrce ,  IV.  341. 

Particularly  the  Resurrection  of  our  bodies,  restoring  our  per¬ 
fect  manhood  to  us  (a  point  wholly  new  to  the  world,  which  no 
Religion  had  embraced,  no  reason  could  descry),  was  hereby  so 
exemplified,  that  considering  it,  we  can  hardly  be  tempted  to  doubt 
of  what  the  gospel  teacheth  about  it. 

Dr.  Isaac  Barrow,  Works,  II.  427. 


195 


SYNOPSIS. 


Introduction  : 

Relation  of  this  subject  to  what  has  gone  before. 

I. — Biblical  Theology: 

a.  The  Resurrection  of  Jesus. 

b.  The  change  in  His  body  clue  to  the  victory  of  the 

spirit. 

c.  Peculiarities  of  the  risen  body. 

d.  Relation  between  the  Resurrection  of  Christ  and 

the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  The  apostolic 
reception  of  the  idea  of  the  Resurrection. 

e.  The  Pauline  development  of  the  Resurrection. 

/.  Moral  Resurrection. 

*  g.  Spiritual  Resurrection. 

li.  Cosmical  Passion  and  Resurrection. 

The  Resurrection  an  answer  to  Pessimism. 

II.  —  Traditional  Theology: 

The  development  of  this  Revelation  in  Historic  Christian¬ 
ity  was  from  the  first  not  fully  received.  The  opinion 
of  Clement,  of  Ignatius,  of  Justin  Martyr,  of  Epiplia- 
nius,  Arius  and  Eusebius,  of  St.  Irenaeus,  of  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  of  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  and  of  Hip- 
polytus  touching  the  Resurrection. 

III.  —  Comparative  Religion  : 

a.  Theories  of  folk-faith  which  became  factors  in  the 

development  of  the  Christian  Theology  of  the 
Resurrection.  Jewish  literalism  and  material¬ 
istic  speculation. 

b.  Early  theories  about  the  life  of  the  ghost,  in 

Semitic  folk-faith,  in  Norse  legend,  and  in 
mediaeval  and  modern  superstition. 

c.  The  Egyptian  theory  of  the  Resurrection  of  the 

body. 


196 


d.  Its  influence  upon  the  popular  Religion  and  the 

Theology  of  the  early  Christians,  and  its  sur¬ 
vival  to  the  present  day.  Its  influence  in  the 
development  of  the  cultus  of  relics  and  of  some 
burial  customs.  Irreconcilable  with  the  Pau¬ 
line  doctrine. 

e.  Gross  literalism  in  the  early  development  of  the 

Theology  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  influence 
of  this  literalism  upon  the  religion  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Aquinas’s  attempt  to  develop 
the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection.  The  Resur¬ 
rection  in  modern  folk-faith. 

/.  Some  revivals  of  ancient  and  primitive  theories 
offered  as  substitutes  for  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  Resurrection. 

IV.  — Practical  Conclusion  : 

The  ethical  force  of  the  true  teaching  of  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion,  and  its  answer  to  the  scientific  and  moral  scep¬ 
ticism  of  the  day.  The  Resurrection  the  necessary 
result  of  the  Immanence  of  God  in  human  conscious¬ 
ness  and  in  the  world. 


197 


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THE  RESURRECTION. 

Gentlemen  :  — 

Because  in  God  we  live,  and  move,  and  are,  because 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  as  Leaven  hidden  in  the  meal 
of  humanity,  because  by  forgiveness  of  sin  that  vital¬ 
ising  Power  permeates  the  deeds  and  the  consciousness 
of  men,  transforming  them  as  leaven  transforms,  it  re¬ 
sults  that  there  is  a  Resurrection  of  the  dead,1  as  the 
symbol  of  Constantinople  correctly  words  it.  It  is 
congruous  that  we  should  come,  after  determinating 
what  we  mean  by  asserting  the  belief  of  a  Triune 
God  in  the  Church,  and  in  remission  of  sins,  to  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection.  For  such  is 
the  logical  development  of  human  receptiveness,  and 
such  is  the  eternal  order  in  Divine  operation.  To 
believers  only,  Jesus  after  His  Resurrection  appeared. 
The  sceptics  of  Emmaus  did  not  discern  their  Lord 
until  after  their  understanding  had  been  opened. 

I.  a .  Just  what  was  the  nature  of  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ?  Of  this  we  ought  to  have  some  definite 
opinion  before  we  go  on  to  discuss  the  Resurrection  of 
the  dead  in  general,  because  our  Lord  was  “  the  first- 

1  avd&Tacris  veKpwv. 

199 


200 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


fruits  of  them  that  slept.”  His  first  proclamation  of 
His  own  Resurrection  was  under  the  figure  of  the 
sign  of  the  prophet  Jonah,1  who  was  sacrificed  in 
order  to  propitiate  a  hostile  power  and  yet  appeared 
alive  again.  After  the  first  important  peculiarity,  — 
namely,  that  He  is  the  first  to  rise  from  the  dead,  —  the 
second  point  to  be  noticed  is  that  this  rise  shall  be2 
“  after  three  days,”  or,  on  the  “  third  day.”  This 
is  the  next  distinctive  characteristic ;  but  there  is  a 
much  larger  meaning  which  demands  our  atten¬ 
tion. 

b.  In  distinction  from  prevailing  notions  of  the 
Resurrection,  as  I  shall  point  out  later,  our  Lord  signi¬ 
fies  that  His  uprise  will  be  to  a  higher  plane  of  exist¬ 
ence,3  where  there  is  neither  birth  nor  death.  This 
characteristic  of  the  Resurrection  has  not  received  the 
attention  which  its  importance  demands..  This  tran¬ 
sition  through  death  and  Resurrection  to  loftier  or 
larger  conditions  of  life  Jesus  calls4  a  baptism,  and 
the  Resurrection  life  the  new  birth,5  because  it  is  a 
transition  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  environment  as 
physical  birth  is  conceived  to  be  individualisation  of 
impersonal  life.  The  Resurrection  appears  from  this 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  to  be  a  transition, 
that  is,  an  ascent  into  superior  conditions  of  existence. 
Yet  from  our  Lord’s  words,  “  Destroy  this  temple,  and 

1  St.  Matt.  xii.  40.  4  St.  Luke  xii.  50. 

2  St.  Mark.  viii.  31 ;  ix.  31 ;  x.  34. 

3  St.  Mark  xii.  25.  5  St.  Matt.  xix.  28,  iraXivyeveala. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


201 


iii  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up,”  1  and,  “  I  have  power  2 
to  lay  down  my  life  and  power  to  take  it  again,” 
it  is  evident  that  Christ’s  body  is,  before  the  Res¬ 
urrection,  and  afterwards,  essentially  the  same,  how¬ 
ever  different  the  potencies  and  attributes.  This 
body  of  our  Lord  underwent  a  change  which  we 
cannot  describe,  but  of  which  the  effects  are  definitely 
recorded.  It  was  a  process  beginning  with  the  dawn 
of  Plis  consciousness,  and  of  this  change  the  Trans¬ 
figuration  was  a  revelation.  With  the  quickening  of 
His  God-consciousness  those  divine  powers  and  oper¬ 
ations  which,  in  assuming  the  limited  and  progressive 
soul  of  a  man  as  His  organon  He  had  relinquished, 
He  gradually  reassumed  as  these  same  powers  assimi¬ 
lated  and  transmuted  the  deathfulness  of  His  human¬ 
ity.  He  increased  in  wisdom  and  in  stature  and  in 
grace  Godwards  and  manwards,3  and  learned  obedi¬ 
ence  by  the  tilings  He  suffered  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh.4  This  growth  in  righteousness  and  in  the  con¬ 
sequent  keen  discernment  of  what  is  righteousness 
with  the  expanding  realisation  of  Infinite  and  Eter¬ 
nal  realities,  is  spiritually  the  state  of  divine  Sonship, 
a  sonship  born  not  of  blood  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh 
nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God,5  and  as  He  is,  so 

1  St.  John  ii.  19.  2  St.  John  x.  18,  19,  e£ovaia. 

3  x^PLTL  7T apa  Qe<p  Kal  avOpioirot.s,  St.  Luke  ii.  52.  Winer,  Greek 

Grammar  of  N.  T.  §  48,  d. 

4  Heb.  v.  7,  8.  <rdp%  distinguishes  the  ante-  from  the  post¬ 

resurrection  body.  5  St.  John  i.  12. 


202 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


are  we  in  the  world;1  that  is  to  say,  each  man  must 
pass  through  the  human  experience  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  His  inner  life.  Now  with  the  Incarnate  Lord  this 
growth  or  process  was  the  gradual  victory  of  the 
Spirit  over  the  flesh,  so  that  in  some  way  the  centre 
of  vital  energy,  of  desire  and  will,  was  removed  from 
the  exterior  court  of  the  body  and  of  the  soul,  into 
the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  Spirit  and  the  Sanctum 
Sanctorum,  where  is  the  Shekina  of  God.  This  re¬ 
moval  in  one  aspect  is  called  metanoia.  For  this 
reason  it  was  said  that  it  was  not  possible  that  Jesus, 
Whose  life’s  centre  was  removed  into  the  sphere  of 
the  Eternal  within  Him,  should  be  holden  of  death; 
because  death  is  the  victory  of  body  over  spirit. 
This  vanquishment  of  body  by  spirit  was  utterly  con¬ 
summated  in  Gethsemane,  and  then  and  there  Jesus 
became  distinctly  and  abidingly  conscious  that  His 
hour  was  come  to  pass  up  into  that  higher  and  inte¬ 
rior  sphere  of  existence  where  alone  He  could  perfect 
His  work  of  salvation.  The  death  of  Jesus  was 
necessary  not  only  as  a  supreme  manifestation  of 
whom  He  is,  and  whom  He  reveals,  but  also  as  the 
means  of  transition  of  His  Divine-human  Person  to 
the  next  higher  sphere  of  His  humanity,  —  fore¬ 
glimpse  of  that  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the 
whole  creation  moves.  For  His  risen  Body,  which  is 
identical  in  substance  with  the  body  of  His  Bethle¬ 
hem  birth,  is  nevertheless  dominant  over  limitations 
of  time,  space,  weight,  impenetrability,  and  inertia. 


1  1  John  iv.  17. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


203 


c.  It  appears  that  at  times  His  risen  Body  was  lu¬ 
minous,1  that  He  moved  with  the  celerity  of  thought,2 
that  He  passed  through  closed  doors,  through  the  rock 
at  the  mouth  of  His  tomb,  and  the  swathings  of  His 
dead  body,  stiffened  as  they  were  with  unguents, 
even  retained  somewhat  the  shape  3  of  His  body,  as 
they  lay  in  the  tomb.  Yet  Jesus  did  not  appear 
unclad.4  He  did  take  food,5  and  He  points  out  to  the 
disciples  that  a  spirit,  or  ghost,  has  not  flesh  and 
bones  6  as  He  has.7 

1  St.  John  xxi.  4,  7 rpwtas  ijdr)  yivoyhys ;  Aquinas,  Summa,  IIIa. 

54,  3,  et  Supplem.  LXXXII.  1. 

2  Summa ,  II  Ia.  84. 

3  St.  John  xx.  1-9. 

4  St.  John  xx.  15. 

5  St.  Luke  xxiv.  30,  43  ;  St.  John  xxi.  13. 

6  St.  Luke  xxiv.  39  ;  St.  John  xx.  27. 

7  So  much  has  been  made  of  this  expression  “flesh  and  bones,” 
that  a  portentous  structure  of  theology,  the  doctrine  of  the  “Pre¬ 
cious  Blood,”  has  been  reared  upon  it.  The  curious  may  read  on 
the  subject  De  Ponte,  V.  24 ;  Suarez,  IIP.  tom.  ii.  ;  Disp.  XLVII. 
3 ;  St.  Tom.  Aquinas,  IIP.  liv.  2.  Aquinas  acutely  observes, 
“Sanguis  autem  ille  qui  in  quibusdem  ecclesiis  pro  reliquio  con- 
servatur,  non  fluxit  de  latere  Christi,  sed  miracule  dicitur  effluxisse 
de  quadem  imagine  Christi  percussa.”  See  also  De  Maistre,  Soi¬ 
rees  de  St.  Petersbourg ,  II.  Appendix ;  Delitzscli,  Bibl.  Psychol. , 
passim ;  Bengel,  Gnomen ,  Heb.  xii.  24;  a  Lapide,  1  Pet.  1-19. 
The  theory  is  that  the  blood  of  Christ  arose  apart  from  His  body 
and  is  still  separate,  and  beheld  in  heaven  as  the  glassy  flaming 
sea  before  the  Throne.  The  idea  has  arisen  probably  from  a  too 
literal  interpretation  of  the  sacrificial  offering  of  the  blood  wherein 
was  the  life,  and  from  too  great  stress  laid  upon  the  death  of  Jesus 
as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  Protestants  hold- 


204 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


d.  The  actual  relation  between  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  and  that  for  which  we  say  in  the  creed  that 
we  have  an  anticipation,1  is  expressed  in  His  own 
words:  “I  am  the  Resurrection,  and  the  life:  He  that 
believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he 
live:  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  die.”  2  By  the  raising  of  Lazarus  He  uttered 
the  same  gospel ;  and  yet  a  theology  of  transcend¬ 
ence  has  been  virtually  murmuring,  “  This  is  a  hard 
saying ;  who  can  bear  it  ?  ”  and  has  gone  about  to 
invent  a  mechanical  upraising  for  a  spiritual  upris¬ 
ing,  —  a  power  acting  from  without,  instead  of  a 
vitalising  energy  from  within.  The  way  the  earlier 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  discuss  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  Jesus  is  striking,  and  of  deep  significance. 
They  do  not  go  about  to  prove  the  fact  itself :  for 
them  there  can  be  no  more  question  of  its  reality 
than  of  the  sun.  They  are  filled  with  its  light  and 
splendour.  Their  attention  is  engaged  in  what  the 

ing  such  a  theory  of  the  Atonement  as  I  describe  in  the  last  lecture 
(see  p.  175)  lean  towards  this  speculation  and  allow  it  to  affect 
their  eucliaristic  doctrine.  Scholastics,  after  Aquinas,  insist  that 
for  the  integrity  of  Christ’s  risen  body  the  blood  must  have  been 
entirely  collected  and  placed  in  his  veins.  This  doctrine  is  symbol¬ 
ised  where  you  see  in  old  paintings  of  the  crucifixion  angels  holding 
a  chalice  to  catch  the  flowing  blood.  On  the  other  hand,  the  legend 
of  the  Holy  Grail,  imported  into  the  West  from  Oriental  folk-faitli, 
shows  how  ancient  and  deep-seated  and  persistently  surviving  in 
the  Teutonic  mind  was  the  anti-Thomist  opinion  of  the  permanent 
separation  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 

1  7 rpocrddKu/j.ei'.  2  St.  John  xi.  25,  26. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


205 


Resurrection  reveals.  In  the  light  of  Christ’s  Resur¬ 
rection  they  see  light,  and  the  world  appears  to  them 
as  never  before.  The  character  and  meaning  of  the 
Resurrection,  rather  than  the  bare  fact  of  a  miracle, 
occupy  them.  They  do  not  search  for  evidences  of 
the  Resurrection,  because  the  Resurrection  is  in  itself 
to  them  an  evidence  of  the  largest  significance.  The 
Jews  had  required  of  Jesus  a  sign  in  the  natural 
world,  of  His  power  and  authority  in  the  spiritual 
realm.1  The  apostles  confidently  gave  the  signs  of 
His  authority  and  power  in  the  spiritual  world  as 
proof  of  His  power  in  the  natural  world.  What 
caused  this  reversal  of  logic?  The  mental  attitude 
of  the  disciples  had  been  uplifted  to  a  plane  where 
they  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible  ;  they 
had  mounted  to  those  high,  shining  tablelands  of 
spiritual  consciousness  and  comprehension  to  which 
our  God  Himself  is  sun  and  moon.  The  New  Testa¬ 
ment-writers  exult  in  the  larger  thought  which  had 
come  to  them  when  Christ  said,  “  Touch  me  not  ” ; 
for  while  they  flagged  not  in  affection  for  the  Christ 
with  Whom  they  had  walked  in  the  ways  of  Galilee, 
Samaria,  and  Judea,  they  nevertheless  beheld,  as  it 
were,  the  Christ  Who  is  now  in  the  whole  world,  the 
essential  Christ  Whose  law  of  life  became  manifest  to 
them  wherever  they  looked,  Whose  face,  grown  large 

1  In  one  instance,  at  any  rate,  Jesus  afforded  this  sign,  the  heal¬ 
ing  of  the  paralytic  (St.  Matt.  ix.  6),  to  which  I  have  already  made 
reference.  The  sign  had  a  peculiar  significance. 


206 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


as  the  boundless  stretch  of  the  heavens,  looked  down 
upon  them,  —  a  countenance  blessed  and  beautiful, — 
u  Aspettata  in  del  beata  e  bella  Animad  Also  for  us, 
again,  in  these  latest  days,  the  ethical  and  cosmical 
resurrection  process  is  become  proof1  which  is  suffi¬ 
cient,  clear,  and  unshakable  of  the  historic  uprise  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead.  Unless,  indeed,  there 
be  a  Resurrection,  the  world  is  a  vulgar,  paltry, 
squalid  town  of  banishment,  “  where,”  says  one,  “  with 
the  shifting  dust  we  play  and  eat  the  bread  of  dis¬ 
content.”  Straightway  after  the  Resurrection,  or 
rather  after  Pentecost,  the  apostles  proceeded  to 
develop  the  grand  and  inspiring  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead. 

e.  St.  Paul  began  with  asserting  that  Jesus  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation,2  a  salvation  from 
death 3  through  the  rectification 4  of  life,  due  to  our 
Lord  as  a  revealer5  of  what  righteousness  is,  and 
what  is  its  operation  unto  deathlessness.6  The  apos¬ 
tle  goes  on  to  declare  that  the  inner  force  which 
Jesus  has  liberated  in  the  world  is  not  a  theory  or  a 
doctrine,  but  a  positive  power,7  which  makes  men 
saved,  safe,  sound,  healthy,  holy,8  and  causes  the 

1  Renan,  Les  Apbtres ,  44.  2  Rom.  i.  16. 

3  Rom.  v.  18-21.  4  dLKaiucns.  5  Rom.  i.  17. 

6  St.  John  vi.  39.  7  1  Cor.  iv.  20,  dvva/xis. 

8  Rom.  i.  16  ;  1  Thes.  v.  9 ;  2  Thes.  ii.  13 ;  2  Tim.  ii.  10 ;  Rom. 
iv.  25.  Weiss,  Bible  Theol.  I.  434,  appears  to  have  forgotten  this 
when  he  remarked  concerning  Jesus,  “  His  Resurrection  has  not, 
like  His  death,  a  significance  as  being  the  means  of  procuring  salva- 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


207 


Resurrection  of  the  dead.  Hence  St.  Paul  evidently 
doubts1  a  uniform  Resurrection  of  the  dead;  he  him¬ 
self  strains  every  power  to  attain  unto  the  better 
Resurrection  by  living  into  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Consequently,  while  St.  Paul  cannot  be  said  to  deny2 
the  Resurrection  of  the  wicked,  he  certainly  does 
contemplate  a  distinction  between  the  Resurrection 
of  the  just  and  that  of  the  unjust ;  for,  to  go  no 
further,  he  said  that  every  seed  would  have  its  own 
body,  and  that  one  star  would  differ  from  another 
star  in  glory,  in  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  He 
also  distinguishes  former  resuscitations ;  e.g.  of  the 
widow’s  sons  in  the  Old  Testament  from  the  better 
Resurrection 3  coming  from  Jesus,  the  First-fruits 4 
of  them  that  slept.  The  evangelist  in  recounting 
the  miracles  of  Christ’s  raising  from  death  Jairus’ 
daughter,  the  widow’s  son  of  Nain  and  his  friend 

tion.”  Without  the  Resurrection,  the  death  of  Jesus  could  not 
atone.  The  death  of  Jesus  upon  which  Paul  laid  stress  was  a 
death  unto  sin ;  this  was  the  atoning  death,  of  which  the  physical 
death  was  the  last  number  of  the  series.  2  Cor.  v.  19  ;  Gal.  iii.  13, 
iv.  4  ;  Rom.  viii.  3. 

1  Phil.  iii.  10. 

2  It  is  not  true  for  Weiss  to  say,  II.  89,  I.  57,  that  a  Resurrection 
of  the  godless  may  not  be  assumed  from  the  New  Testament,  for 
see  St.  John  v.  25,  or  that  St.  Paul  does  not  know  of  such  a  Resur¬ 
rection,  for  see  Acts  xxiv.  15.  The  wicked,  it  is  true,  are  already 
judged,  Weiss,  II.  4,  18,  n.  6,  but,  for  that  matter,  so  have  the 
righteous  passed  from  death  unto  life. 

3  Heb.  xi.  35. 

4  1  Cor.  xv.  20. 


208 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Lazarus,  uses  not  the  word  meaning  to  resurrect,  but 
that  which  signifies  to  awake  or  to  arouse.1 

f.  This  better  Resurrection  is  a  transformation 
of  the  corruptible  and  psychical  into  the  incor¬ 
ruptible  and  pneumatical  body.2  Lotze’s  observa¬ 
tion,3  is  therefore  strictly  in  the  Pauline  spirit, 
when  he  says  that  a  Resurrection  of  the  same  mate¬ 
rial  body  would  mean  only  a  continuance  of  this  life 
during  the  existence  of  the  body  which  it  animates. 
St.  Paul  teaches  a  change  and  a  transformation  of 
the  body,  but  no  loss  of  substantial  identity  and 
continuity.  The  natural  body  is  evolved  in  this  life 
from  the  Psyche  (or  soul),  the  heavenly  body  is 
evolved  from  the  Pneuma  (or  spirit).  Thus  much 
concerning  the  Pauline  psychology :  more  would  be 
beyond  our  purpose.  St.  Peter  4  likewise  calls  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  spiritual  body  of  the  Resurrection  of 
our  Lord,  intimating  that  it  belongs,  like  baptism, 
to  the  process  of  the  justification,  which  we  have 
seen  to  be  the  rectification  of  life.  He  also  shows 
that  the  energy,  or  dynamic  impulse,  to  Resurrec¬ 
tion  is  essentially  within  man,  and  that  it  resides  in 
his  pneuma,  or  spirit.5  It  is  clear  that  this  spirit¬ 
ual  Resurrection  of  Jesus  is  only  the  starting-point 


1  Not  ai'daraais,  but  experts,  St.  Mark  v.  41  ;  St.  Luke  viii.  54, 
vii.  14;  St.  John  xii.  1.  See  St.  Matt,  xxvii.  53,  for  the  tyepais,  not 
avdo-Tcuns,  of  the  saints  at  the  crucifixion. 

2  1  Cor.  xv.  43-52.  3  Microcosmos ,  480.  4  1  Pet.  iii.  21. 

5  1  Pet.  iii.  18.  Cf.  Weiss,  Bibl .  Theol.  I.  229,  n. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


209 


and  the  impulse  of  the  general  Resurrection  of  the 
body.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  first  Resurrection,  and  men¬ 
tion  is  made  of  it  in  Rev.  xx.  5.  I  understand  that 
it  was  concerning  this  spiritual  Resurrection,  which 
is  the  ground  and  condition  of  the  bodily  Resurrection, 
that  our  Lord  spoke  when  he  said  of  some  that  [now] 
“  they  have  eternal  life  ;  .  .  .  they  have  [already] 
passed  from  death  unto  life,”  and  that  they  will  not 
taste  death  because,  at  the  last  day,  He  essentially 
having  permeated  them,  will  raise  them  up.1  It  was 
a  misunderstanding  of  these  words  concerning  the 
spiritual  process  of  the  Resurrection  which  anciently 
caused  Hymenseus  and  Philetus  “  to  err  concerning 
the  truth,  saying  that  the  Resurrection  is  passed 
already,”  2  so  that  no  other  is  to  come ;  and  this  obso¬ 
lete  heresy  has  in  our  own  day  been  revived  by 
rationalism,  theosophy,  and  Christian  science. 

g .  St.  Paul  after  thus  evolving  the  Christian  idea 
of  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead,  until  it  is  presented 
as  a  rise  to  a  higher  plane,  by  the  out-working  and 
unveiling  in  Jesus  of  the  hidden  Love  Who  is  death¬ 
less  Life,  finds  that  this  wonderful  reality  has  also  a 
subjective  application  which  is  quite  true ;  a  death 
unto  sin  and  a  Resurrection  unto  righteousness. 

“Yea,  the  Resurrection  and  Uprise 
To  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  —  what  is  it  beside, 

1  Weidener,  Bibl.  Theol.  of  the  New  Testament ,  I.  109;  Milli¬ 
gan,  Revelation  of  St.  John ,  220,  note  b ,  and  Appendix  II. 

2  2  Tim.  ii.  18. 


210  SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 

When  such  truth,  breaking  bounds,  o’erfloods  my  soul, 
And  as  I  saw  sin  and  death,  even  so 
See  I  the  need  and  transiency  of  both, 

The  good  and  glory  consummated  thence.” 

h.  There  is  in  that  golden  letter  attributed  to 
James,  the  brother  of  the  Lord,  a  striking  expression, 
of  which  we  could  easily  make  too  much,  as  probably 
Jacob  Bohmen  did.  St.  James  alludes  to  the  44  wheel 
of  nature,”  1  which,  if  we  might  be  allowed  to  use 
Hegelian  phrase,  should  be  translated  the  Wheel  of 
Becoming ,  i.e.  of  continually  coming  into  existence. 
From  a  certain  attitude,  nature  has  seemed  to  man 
nothing  other  than  such  a  vast,  terrific  whirl.  To 
the  man  of  sensibility  there  is  something  even  more 
than  saddening  in  this  aspect ;  the  conflict  in  nature 
is  a  bitter  tragedy.  The  world  of  animal  life  is  filled 
with  cruelty,  ferocity,  and  crime.  Violence  could 
almost  be  termed  the  condition  of  lower  animal  exist¬ 
ence.  Everywhere  the  strong  preys  upon  the  weak, 
everywhere  there  are  terror  and  flight,  rapacity  and 
pursuit.  From  the  tiniest  insect  to  the  strongest 
kings  of  the  carnivora,  each  animal  destiny  is  a 
lifelong,  incessant  warfare.  Everywhere  nature,  like 
the  Hindu  goddess  Kali,  is  smeared  with  blood  and 
cruelty.  How  much  better  is  the  aspect  when  we 
mount  from  wild  beasts  to  the  higher  stage  of  civil¬ 
ised  man,  nay,  even  to  the  region  and  history  of 
religion  ?  Taking  a  generality  familiar  to  all :  At 


1  iii.  6,  tt] s  yevtaeus 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


211 


the  beginning  it  seemed  for  the  first  six  centuries 
that  Christianity  was  destined  to  cover  the  whole 
earth,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  The  Church 
waxed  rich  and  splendid  and  powerful,  kings  sat  in 
her  councils  and  her  word  went  forth  into  all  lands ; 
but  in  the  seventh  century  arose  a  hostile  power, 
Islam,  that  rode  forth  in  the  name  of  the  Prophet, 
with  the  scimitar  and  with  fire.  Like  a  tornado  or 
the  forest  conflagration,  it  spread  rapidly  and  irre¬ 
sistibly  until  itself  became  convinced  that  its  inheri¬ 
tance  was  nothing  less  than  the  whole  earth.  But 
Islam,  too,  was  checked  in  its  onward  spread,  and 
for  centuries  its  boundaries  have  not  been  enlarged. 
Then  rose  the  Papacy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  power 
and  the  recognised  authority.  It  ruled  the  kings  of 
the  earth  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  broke  them  in 
pieces  like  a  potter’s  vessel.  In  the  days  of  Gregory 
and  Innocent  and  Boniface,  men  could  imagine  no 
power  likely  to  arise  upon  earth  which  could  ever 
check  the  sway  of  God’s  vice-gerent.  But  Protes¬ 
tantism  arose  and  swept  across  Europe,  sudden,  swift 
as  a  whirlwind,  and  the  splendid  fabric  of  the  popes 
melted  away  like  cloud  cities.  Scarcely  a  century  had 
past  when  Protestantism,  too,  had  reached  its  limits, 
and  to  a  standstill  it  came  and  at  a  standstill  it 
has  since  remained.  With  the  fall  of  the  ideal  of 
the  rule  of  the  Church  arose  the  ideal  of  the  rule  of 
kings ;  but  that,  too,  has  gone  the  way  of  human 
theories,  and,  in  our  own  time,  the  conflict  which  has 


212 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


arisen  is  not  over  the  throne  of  pope  or  of  king,  but 
it  is  the  tense,  hand  to  hand,  silent,  terrific  struggle 
of  class  with  class.  And  as  Nature  in  her  blindness 
is  filled  with  fierce  and  deadly  conflict,  so  history 
demonstrates  that  human  life,  in  all  its  various  mani¬ 
festations,  is  but  a  succession  of  strifes,  of  bitterness, 
and  of  pain  :  as  one  who  would  seem  to  have  ascended 
to  the  Olympian  heights  of  calm  intellectual  mood, 
and  there  in  philosophic  satisfaction  had  donned  his 
singing  robes,  chants  to  us,  — 

“  Like  a  vast  wheel  that  spins  through  humming  air, 

And  time,  life,  death,  are  sucked  within  its  breath, 

And  thrones  and  kingdoms  like  sere  leaves  are  hurled 
Down  to  its  maelstrom  ;  for  its  wind  of  death 
Sweeps  the  wide  skies,  and  shakes  the  flaring  suns, 

So  fast  the  wheel  spins,  and  the  glory  runs.” 

The  facts  of  history  and  of  life,  such  as  these, 
have  brought  us  in  our  own  days  face  to  face  with 
a  practical  problem  of  thought,  with  the  riddle  of 
things  which  has  been  called  “  the  mystery  of  pain.” 
This  question  which  presses  upon  the  teachers  of 
religion  cannot  be  ignored  as  one  of  mere  theory. 
It  is  a  fundamental  question  of  living  thought, 
“  Why  is  the  world  so  filled  with  agony  of  mind 
and  of  flesh?”  It  is  a  question  which  seems  un¬ 
answerable,  which,  in  melancholy  minds  of  pessi¬ 
mists,  has  suggested  the  poetical  idea  of  Weltschmerz. 
The  philosopher  has  suggested  that  it  is  inconceiv¬ 
able  that  God  should  have  created  a  world  in  which 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


213 


these  veiy  conditions  of  conflict  should  not  press 
upon  us,  in  which  gloom  and  perhaps  despair  should 
not  prevail.  Pain  must  predominate  in  the  world ;  it 
is  the  potency  of  life  and  progress,  and  must  equal, 
if  it  do  not  outweigh,  pleasure ;  because  of  the 
pain  and  lassitude  which  inevitably  follow  when  the 
nervous  excitement  which  we  call  pleasure  ceases. 
The  exhaustion  of  the  nerve  force  in  pleasure  weak¬ 
ens  the  pleasure  and  becomes  pain,  so  that  it  is  diffi¬ 
cult  to  distinguish  between  the  highest  degrees  of 
pleasure  and  of  pain.  We  weep  for  joy  as  well  as 
for  sorrow;  an  extremely  high  musical  tone  causes 
a  sensation  difficult  to  discriminate  —  is  it  pleasura¬ 
ble  or  is  it  painful?  “Our  sweetest  songs  are  those 
that  tell  of  saddest  thought.”  The  reason  of  this 
is  that  pleasure  may  be  characterised  as  indirect ;  it 
is  relief  from  pain,  and  arises  simply  from  the  sense 
of  relativity.  Hope,  which  is  the  mainspring  of  all 
life,  which  is  the  spur  to  all  endeavour,  gives  hut  a 
momentary  satisfaction  in  the  attainment  of  its  end ; 
it  is  the  pleasing  anxiety  of  hope,  which  of  itself  is 
a  pain,  that  makes  existence  possible.  Gratification, 
satiation,  would  result  in  repose,  stagnation,  and 
consequently  in  death.  Finally,  pain,  by  its  very 
nature,  more  easily  than  pleasure,  enters  into  human 
consciousness ;  hence  pain,  it  would  seem,  must 
always  outweigh  pleasure. 

Now,  even  if  we  do  not  agree  with  Yon  Hartmann, 
the  statement  of  Mr.  Hinton  is  hardly  controverti- 


214 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ble : 1  “  A  life  from  which  everything  which  has  in 
it  the  element  of  pain  is  banished  becomes  a  life  not 
worth  having;  or  worse,  of  intolerable  tedium  and 
disgust.  There  is  ample  proof  in  the  experience 
of  the  foolish  among  the  rich  that  no  course  is 
more  fatal  to  pleasure  than  to  succeed  in  putting 
aside  everything  that  can  call  for  endurance.  The 
stronger  and  more  generous  faculties  of  our  nature, 
debarred  from  their  true  exercise,  avenge  themselves 
by  poisoning  and  embittering  all  that  remains.” 
From  this  it  is  clear,  that  when  we  carefullv  exam- 
ine  the  contributions  of  philosophers  towards  a  solu¬ 
tion  of  the  problem  of  pain,  we  discover  that  they 
do  scarcely  more  than  restate  the  question  in  terms 
which  are  rigidly  positive  and  pitiless.  The  ancients, 
gazing  at  the  great  whirl  of  life,  the  relentless  turning 
of  the  “Wheel  of  Becoming,”  conceived  it  to  be  the 
manifestation  of  the  wrath  of  the  gods,  a  vortex  of 
blind  necessity,  or  the  twirl  of  the  distaff  of  Clotho, 
who  spins  the  fate  of  souls  and  spheres.  But  in  the 
vivid  light  of  the  riven  tomb,  St.  Paul  discerns  that 
this  universe,  which  is  the  progressive  utterance 
of  Infinite  Love,  is  going  through  a  vast  passion, 
which  is  the  tragic  drama  of  its  time  history,  until, 
through  the  awakening  of  the  divine  spnsliip  in  each 
man,  and  the  consequent  spiritualisation  of  his  body, 
there  will  be  a  passage  and  a  return  of  the  universe 
unto  the  spiritual  sphere.  If,  therefore,  we  are  puz- 


1  Mystery  of  Pain ,  47. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


215 


zled  by  the  enigma  of  life,  and  by  that  passion  as 
manifest  in  humanity  as  in  nature,  by  the  martyrdom 
of  man  which  saddened  iEschylus  and  Buddha  and 
many  a  man  since,  we  shall  find  the  only  solution 
in  the  principle  that  St.  Paul  dwells  upon  as  the 
manifestation  of  the  Resurrection. 

The  passion  which  is  in  the  heart  of  Divine  Love 
reveals  itself  alike  in  the  heart  of  man,  in  the  proc¬ 
ess  of  nature,  and  on  the  Cross  of  Calvary. 

“  God  draws  a  cloud  over  each  gleaming  morn,  - — 

Would  you  ask  why? 

It  is  because  all  noblest  things  are  born 
In  agony. 

Only  upon  some  cross  of  pain  and  woe 
God’s  Son  may  lie  : 

Each  soul  redeemed  from  self  and  sin  must  know 
Its  Calvary.” 

The  epistle  to  the  Romans  contains  Paul’s  rationale 
of  the  struggle  for  existence,  which,  based  upon  the 
principle  of  the  Resurrection,  is  his  solution  of  the 
problem  of  the  existence  of  evil,  sin,  and  death.  He 
says,  “  I  reckon  that  the  Passion  of  the  present  is  of 
no  account  in  comparison  with  the  glory  that  shall  be 
revealed  to-usward.  For  the  earnest  expectation  of 
creation  awaiteth  the  revealing  of  the  Sons  of  God. 
For  creation  was  subjected  to  vanity  not  of  its  own 
choice,  but  by  reason  of  Him  who  hath  subjected  it 
in  the  hope  that  even  creation  shall  be  liberated  from 
the  bondage  of  the  corruption  into  the  glorious  free- 


210 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


dom  of  the  children  of  God.  For  we  know  that  the 
whole  creation  groaneth  together,  and  suffereth  birth- 
pangs  until  now.  And  not  only  that,  but  ourselves 
also,  though  we  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  spirit, 
groan  together  within  ourselves  awaiting  an  adoption 
which  is  the  emancipation  of  our  body.  For  we  by 
hope  were  saved.”  1 

I  take  these  words  of  St.  Paul  to  mean  that  the 
Resurrection  through  Jesus  is  that  liberation  or 
emancipation  which  he  terms  the  redemption  of  our 
body.  I  never  think  on  these  words  of  St.  Paul 
without  recollecting  the  admirable  exposition  of 
them  made  by  Mr.  Fiske  in  his  Destiny  of  Man ,  and 
afterwards  summed  up  in  the  Idea  of  Crod :  “We 
see  man  still  the  crown  of  the  universe  and  the 
chief  object  of  divine  care,  yet  still  the  lame  and 
halting  creature,  loaded  with  a  semi-brute  inheritance 
of  original  sin,  whose  ultimate  salvation  is  slowly 
to  be  achieved  through  ages  of  moral  discipline. 
We  see  the  chief  agency  which  produced  him, — 
natural  selection  which  always  works  through  strife, 


1  Aoyl^ofJUXL  yap  otl  ovk  tcl  TradrjpaTa  tov  vvv  naipov  irpbs  ttjv 

ptXXovaav  d6£av  aTroKaXvcpdrjvaL  els  ijpds.  ij  yap  atvoKapadoula  ttjs 
KTLcreu) s  ttjv  airoKa\v\pLV  tutv  viCjv  rod  0eoO  d7re/c5^xercu.  rrj  yap 
p.ar aLOTTjT i  tj  ktIctls  virerayr],  ovk  eKovcra,  aXXa  dta  rbv  viroTa^avra,  ecp' 
8lotl  Kal  avT7]  rj  ktIctls  eXevdepcjdrjaeTaL  curb  rijs  SovXlas  ttjs 
(pdopas  els  ttjv  eXevdeplav  ttjs  db^rjs  tQ>v  t^kvlov  tov  Qeov.  oidapev  yap 
otl  Traaa  tj  ktIctls  crvvaTeva^eL  Kal  avvoiblvei  &XPL  T°v  v^v '  °v  P-bvov 
aXXa  Kal  avTol  ttjv  airapxrjv  tov  irvevpaTos  exovTes,  Tjpels  Kal  avTol  ev 
eavrols  (TTeva^ojiev  vioOecrlav  aireKbex^pevoL,  ttjv  diroXvTpoxTLV  tov  aurpa- 
tos  rjpQv.  tt/  yap  eXvldL  eacbdrjpev.  Rom.  viii.  18-25. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


217 


—  ceasing  to  operate  upon  him,  so  that  until  human 
strife  shall  be  brought  to  an  end  there  goes  on  a 
struggle  between  his  lower  and  higher  impulses,  in 
which  the  higher  must  finally  conquer.  And  in  all 
this  we  find  the  strongest  possible  incentive  to  right 
living,  yet  one  that  is  the  same  in  principle  with 
that  set  forth  by  the  great  Teacher  who  first  brought 
men  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God.”1 

Clearlier  in  the  run  of  the  ages  is  the  Divine  devel¬ 
oped  in  human  consciousness,  and  the  broken  spec¬ 
trum  of  the  One  Light 2  loses  its  dark  lines.  Modern 
science,  which  some  men  have  distrusted  as  utterly 
godless,  is  making  thought  receptive  of  the  most 
spiritual  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  hidden  Leaven  of 
Divine  Life  is  leavening  the  world,  and  the  Church, 
and  the  souls  of  men,  is  solving  the  dark  problem 
of  evil,  and  is  atoning  pain  and  love.  The  strife  of 
the  world  is  a  redemptive  process,  an  upward  stress 
of  the  Life  that  permeates  and  pervades  star  mists 
and  saints.  Of  this  interpretation  of  God  in  human 
destiny  an  apt  symbol  was  set  forth  by  the  magic 
hall  which  Merlin  reared  for  Arthur’s  court :  — 

“  Four  great  zones  of  sculpture,  set  betwixt 
With  many  a  mystic  symbol,  gird  the  hall : 

And  in  the  lowest  beasts  are  slaying  men, 

And  in  the  second  men  are  slaying  beasts, 

And  on  the  third  are  warriors,  perfect  men, 

And  on  the  fourth  are  men  with  growing  wings, 


1  John  Fiske,  Idea  of  God ,  165. 


2  1  John  i.  5. 


218 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


And  over  all,  one  statue  .  .  .  with  a  crown, 

And  peak’d  wings  pointed  to  the  Northern  Star.” 

Finally,  though  we  do  hereupon,  with  the  sanction 
of  Biblical  Theology,  affirm  the  Resurrection  of  the 
dead  as  a  result,  or  a  moment,  in  that  process  which 
is  both  individual  and  universal,1  because  of  the 
nature  of  the  Immanent  God,  Who  is  Love,  Who  is 
Life,  we  no  more  deny  that  God  raises  the  dead  than 
we  deny  that  God  creates  us ;  albeit  by  the  process  of 
natural  generation. 

II.  Although  the  apostles,  and  Paul  in  particular, 
spread  out  such  a  grand  exposition  of  the  Christian 
idea  of  the  Resurrection,  yet  the  sub-apostolic  ages 
made  little  further  progress ;  to  that  “  fugitive  and 
gracious  light  shy  to  illumine  ”  their  receptiveness 
was  blinded.  Indeed,  owing  to  the  survival  of  cruder 
notions,  and  also  to  the  influence  of  philosophy,  there 
was  among  the  Patristic  writers  a  distinct  retrogres¬ 
sion  of  consciousness  of  the  idea  of  the  Resurrection. 
The  first  epistle  of  Clement  draws  its  argument  for 
the  Resurrection  from  the  worn  example  of  the  Phoe¬ 
nix,  of  pagan  fable,  and  cites  the  Old  Testament, 
and  not  the  New,  in  support  of  the  doctrine.  It 
shows  a  complete  misapprehension  of  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  those  who  are  made  alive  in  Christ.  In  that 
homily,  commonly  called  the  Second  Epistle  of  Clem- 

1  It  is  from  ignoring  this  truth  of  St.  Paul’s  that  Weiss  finds 
Rom.  iv.  25  and  vi.  to  he  unintelligible,  and  denies  by  innuendo  a 
Resurrection  of  the  wicked.  Cf.  Bibl.  Theol.  I.  437,  5. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


219 


ent  to  the  Corinthians,  a  materialistic  theory  of  Res¬ 
urrection  is  boldly  expressed  as  “  in  this  very  flesh.”  1 
St.  Ignatius,  however,  in  his  opinion  of  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion,  perceives  no  distinction  between  the  flesh 2  and 
the  body.3  Tatian4  points  out  that  the  Christian  idea 
of  the  Resurrection  differs  from  that  of  the  Platon- 
ists,  Stoics,  and  Epicureans.  With  the  Stoics,  Tatian 
conceives  of  a  cyclic  consummation,5  when  the  dis¬ 
persed  particles  of  the  body  shall  be  recongregated, 
and  there  will  be  a  Resurrection  of  bodies.6  In  this 
theory  of  Tatian  we  perceive  a  survival  of  the  theory 
of  the  Egyptians.  According  to  this  view  the  world 
will  last  only  so  long  as  enough  shall  have  lived  on 
it  to  require,  at  the  consummation  of  the  cycle,  all  the 
particles  of  matter  to  recompose  their  bodies.  What 
standing-ground  will  then  be  left  for  the  bodies  thus 

O  O 

resuscitated?  Justin  Martyr  had  ideas  which  were 
altogether  as  crude.  In  one  place7  he  teaches  a  double 
Resurrection,  and  in  another 8  a  single  Resurrection. 
His  formula  is  the  “resurrection  of  the  dead,”9  and 
it  is  evident  that  in  one  place  by  his  reference  to  St. 
Matt.  xxii.  29,  31,  he  may  not  necessarily  mean  by 
“the  dead,”10  corpses.  Epiphanius,  the  Orthodox,  is 
contented  to  say  “  resurrection  of  dead,” 11  while 

1  ip  rrj  (rapid  TavTrj.  2  (rapt;. 

3  aupa.  See  Bp.  Lightfoot’s  Apostolic  Fathers. 

4  C.  vi.  5  <rvpTi\eia.  6  dpacrTacns  aup,arup. 

7  Apol.  81.  8  Apol.  52.  9  dvdaracTLS  tup  vexpuv. 

10  ueKpoL.  11  apdaracns  venpup. 


220 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Arius,  the  arch-heretic,  and  Eusebius,  the  semi-Arian, 
stickle  for  “  resurrection  of  flesh/’ 1  The  theory  that 
the  Resurrection  of  the  wicked  ought  to  be  in  the 
flesh,2  in  order  that  in  the  flesh  they  might  suffer 
appropriate  torments,  was  certainly  the  popular  Jew¬ 
ish  opinion  of  that  day,  and  gained  authority  from 
our  Lord’s  use  of  the  phraseology  then  in  vogue. 
Though  subtly  it  implies  a  dualism,  nevertheless  it  was 
adopted  by  many  of  the  Fathers,  and  ran  its  course 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  as  may  be  seen  in  many  a 
painted  window,  carving,  and  mural  painting  in  the 
Gothic  churches.  These  grotesque  fancies  of  retri¬ 
bution  were  abundantly  ridiculed  by  Rabelais  and 
Quevedo  y  Villegas.  One  has  only  to  read  over  the 
entertaining  tales  of  the  Legenda  Aurea,  and  the 
quaint  dramas  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  be  impressed 
with  the  certainty  that  these  notions  of  the  Resur¬ 
rection  were  nothing  better  than  survivals  of  ancient 
fancies,  of  Tartarus,  of  the  Egyptian  land  of  Amenti, 
of  the  Hindu  abode  of  the  dewas,  of  the  dusty  subter¬ 
ranean  kingdom  of  the  Akkadian  god  Mul-lil,  lord  of 
the  ghost  world,  and,  further  back,  of  the  ghost  land 
of  primitive  folk-faith. 

St.  Irenseus  3  denies  that  man  is  essentially  immor¬ 
tal.  Immortality  he  takes  to  be  the  gift  of  God,  Who 
by  some  interior  operation  of  the  consecrated  ele¬ 
ments  of  the  Eucharist,4  will  cause  the  particles  of 

1  avaarac ns  aapKos.  3  Against  Heresies,  V. 

2  cr&p%.  4  Against  Heresies,  V.  3. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


221 


the  body  to  reintegrate  and  be  revivified.  Perhaps 
it  was  a  belief  like  this  which  caused  the  Christians 
of  the  Catacombs  to  place  the  Eucharistic  food  in  the 
mouth  of  the  corpse  before  it  was  walled  up  in  its 
narrow  bed.  St.  Irenseus,  speaking  of  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion,  uses  the  term  “raising  from  dead.”1  In  one 
place,2  the  thought  of  Irenseus  is  that  the  indwelling 
Holy  Spirit  does  by  His  gifts  transmute  the  animal 
or  psychical  (commonly  called  carnal)  into  the  spirit¬ 
ual  body ;  and  again  by  his  expression,  “  laver  that 
leads  to  incorruption,” 3  he  has  been  understood  to 
imply  that  Holy  Baptism  is  the  beginning  of  that 
process  which  culminates  in  the  Resurrection  of  the 
dead.  This  we  may  accept  as  true,  if  the  inward 
and  spiritual  grace  of  man  corresponds  to  the  out¬ 
ward  and  visible  sign.  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria 4 
does  distinctly  join  immortality  with  baptismal  re¬ 
generation.  Theophilus  of  Antioch  of  all  the  anti- 
Nicene  Fathers  appears  to  have  afforded  to  the 
teachings  of  apostolic  tradition  the  most  considerable 
receptivity.  By  analogy  of  the  processes  of  the 
natural  body,  Theophilus  indicates  what  may  be  con¬ 
jectured  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  spiritual  body. 
Tertullian,  who  wrote  a  treatise  On  the  Resurrection 
of  the  Flesh ,  believed  not  in  a  Resurrection,  but  in  a 
resuscitation  of  the  flesh,  into  which  the  soul  is 
recalled  ;  as  you  might  see  pictured  in  the  sepulchral 

1  eyepcns  ex  pexpuv.  3  Against  Heresies,  III.  17,  2. 

2  Heresies,  I.  10.  4  Peed.  I.  6. 


222 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


pictures  and  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  of  ancient  Egypt, 
where  with  a  magic  touch  of  the  crux  ansata,  the 
jackal-headed  god  Anubis  calls  back  to  the  mummy 
its  soul,  which  is  represented  in  the  form  of  a  winged 
creature ;  or  as  the  Greek  Hermes  Psycliopompos 
was  fancied  by  the  Neoplatonists  and  like  mystics  to 
resuscitate  the  dead.  The  pictures  on  the  walls  of  the 
Catacombs  show  that  these  pagan  beliefs  had  passed 
over  into  Christianity.  It  is  by  a  poor  evasion  that 
Tertullian  expounds  1  Paul’s  words,  “  Flesh  and  blood 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,”  to  signify 
only  fleshly  works.  In  this  he  had,  however,  the  bad 
example  of  what  Irenseus  had  written2  a  few  years 
before.  St.  Hippolytus  says  that  the  unrighteous 
will  receive  their  bodies  unransomed  from  the  bond¬ 
age  of  disease  and  pain,3  but  the  risen  bodies  of  the 
godly  will  be  not  able  to  suffer.4  The  gross  judaising 
of  the  Western  theologians  in  the  second  century 
appears  distinctly  at  the  close  of  Irenseus’  great  work  5 
where  he  says  that  this  earth  will  be  renewed  in 
order  that  the  risen  flesh  may  dwell  in  it.  Since 
Irenseus  omits  to  inform  us  what  earth  sinners  are  to 
inhabit,  we  might  infer  from  this  and  from  other 
passages 6  that  he  did  not  believe  in  a  Resurrection 

1  On  Res.  50.  2  Heresies,  V.  3,  9.  3  (pdopa . 

4  Against  Plato.  5  Against  Heresies,  V.  36. 

6  Against  Heresies,  II.  34  ;  V.  Cf.  St.  Tlieophilus  to  Autolicns, 

II.  37  ;  Tatian,  Ag.  the  Greeks,  XIII.  ;  St.  Justin  Martyr,  Tryph. 
V. ;  St.  Athan.,  Against  the  Gentiles,  II.  14-16;  On  Incarnation, 

III. ,  also  IV. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


223 


of  the  unjust.  From  all  this  it  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  anti-Nicene  theology  was  hindered  by  survivals 
of  folk-faith  from  receiving  the  gospel  of  the  Resur¬ 
rection.  From  the  second  century  to  our  own  day 
the  Idols 1  of  the  Den  and  of  the  Theatre,  i.e.  folk- 
faith  and  philosophy,  have  dominated  the  thought  of 
the  Christian  theology  of  Resurrection. 

III.  a.  Let  us  now  turn  and  examine  this  folk- 
faith.  For  the  aspiration  of  the  Jew  at  our  Lord’s 
time,  the  land  of  Canaan  sufficed  for  an  everlasting 
Heaven.  The  Jew  was  nothing  if  not  literal.  He 
read  the  rolls  of  the  ancient  prophets,  and  from  them 
he  understood  that  upon  his  own  Mount  Zion  should 
be  set  up  the  literal  throne  of  the  Messiah,  and  there 
should  be  his  Court  and  Hall  of  Audience  ;  thence 
should  emanate  decrees  levying  taxes  upon  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  for  the  benefit  of  the  remnant 
of  Israel.  The  Messiah’s  Kingdom  which  the  Jew 
of  that  day  expected  was  a  veritable  empire  of  the 
world,  an  autocracy  more  sublime  and  opulent  than 
dreamed  of  by  the  Julian  Caesars.  It  was  said  that 
in  the  Messiah’s  day  it  would  come  to  pass  that 
each  Jew  would  have  twenty-eight  hundred  slaves, 
and  that  his  other  wealth  would  be  simply  beyond 
calculation.  To  this  Paradise  on  earth  the  good 
Jew  was  to  be  revivified,  said  the  Pharisee,  and  that 
by  means  of  some  indestructible  germ  of  life,  some 
part  of  the  body  which  could  not  decay.  The  story 
goes  that  a  Roman  emperor  once  demanded  of  a 

1  See  above,  page  3. 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


994 

JmU  JJT 


Jewish  Rabbi  how  it  was  possible  that  there  could 
be  a  Resurrection  of  the  dead  after  their  bodies  had 
long  been  completely  dissipated  through  corruption 
and  decay.  The  answer  given  was  that  there  is  in 
the  body  a  bone  called  luz,  the  os  sacrum which  is 
indestructible,  and  which  contains  the  germ  of  life, 
retaining  it  to  the  Resurrection.  Then  the  emperor 
made  a  test;  a  luz  bone  was  procured,  it  was  boiled, 
was  put  into  fire ;  with  pestle  and  mortar,  with  sledge 
and  anvil,  they  tried  to  pulverise  and  destroy  this 
bone.  No  success.  Even  acids  would  not  eat  it. 
The  emperor  was  convinced.  Some  supposed  that 
the  indestructible  germ  of  human  life  resided  in 
some  bone,  in  the  shape  of  a  small  hair-like  worm. 
Descartes  put  the  seat  of  the  soul  in  the  pineal 
gland.  Paley  and  Bishop  Courtenay  believed  that 
the  mind  utterly  perished  with  the  body,  but  at 
the  Resurrection  God  called  it  anew  into  existence. 

1  It  is  possible  that  this  legend  about  the  os  sacrum  had  an 
Egyptian  origin,  because  in  Egypt  the  os  sacrum  was  a  symbol  of 
eternal  goodness,  as  the  permanent  and  imperishable  foundation 
of  all  things.  This  bone,  together  with  a  heart  surmounted  by  a 
cross,  was  often  pictured  upon  Egyptian  coffins,  and  in  Egypt  it 
denoted  a  son  devoted  to  his  father.  In  Christianity  the  symbol 
has  in  part  survived  in  the  cult  of  the  Sacred  Heart.  The  late 
Dr.  Lundy  told  me  that  he  was  one  of  a  party  in  Egypt  who  had 
procured  a  mysterious  bundle  of  some  mummified  object.  After 
unrolling  many  a  wind  of  cloth  they  found  carefully  preserved  in 
the  centre  an  os  sacrum.  See  Horapollinis  Hieroglyphica,  II. 
10,  —  Siotl  dvcnradts  eari.  to  tov  £cbov  dartov ;  and  Sharp,  Vocabulary 
of  Egyptian  Hieroglyphics ,  624,  625,  1012. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


225 


To  return  to  Jewish  theology:  the  Rabbi  Eleazar 
asked,  “  And  will  not  the  righteous  that  die  outside 
the  land  of  Israel  live  again?”  Rabbi  Illaa  replied, 
“  They  will,  by  rolling  ”  (underground  to  the  land 
of  Israel).  Rabbi  Abba  Salla  Rabbali  put  forward 
a  very  forceful  question  in  regard  to  this,  viz. : 
“Will  not  the  rolling  occasion  distress  to  the  right¬ 
eous  ?  ”  Abaii  replied,  “  Tunnels  will  be  made  for 
them  through  the  ground.”  Carna  said,  “  There  is 
reason  in  the  words,  4  And  thou  slialt  carry  me  out 
of  Egypt,  and  bury  me  in  their  burying-place,’ 
Gen.  xlvii.  30 ;  for  our  father  Jacob  knew  that  he 
was  a  perfectly  righteous  man,  and  if  the  dead  out¬ 
side  the  land  of  Israel  will  live  again,  why  should 
he  trouble  his  son  to  carry  him  out  of  Egypt?  The 
reason  is  he  feared  lest,  if  buried  in  Egypt,  he  might 
not  be  worthy  enough  to  escape  the  distress  of  rolling 
through  the  subterranean  tunnels  from  his  grave  to 
the  land  of  Israel.”  1  Such  is  the  Jewish  theology 
of  the  Talmud,  and  I  am  told  that  to  this  very  day 
Polish  Jews  will  bury  wooden  forks  with  their  dead 
in  order  that  at  the  last  day  the  dead  resuscitated 
may  burrow  their  way  underground  from  where  they 
lie  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  when  they  will  emerge 
to  the  surface  of  the  soil.2  So  the  Christians  of  the 
Middle  Ages  would  bury  in  a  campo  santo,  in  soil 
brought  from  the  Holy  Land  (as  now  we  use  conse- 

1  Kethuboth ,  fol.  IIR. 

2  Hershon,  Treasures  of  the  Talmud ,  285. 


226 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


crated  ground),  and  they  would  inter  the  corpse 
with  its  face  to  the  East,  in  order  that  at  the  Resur¬ 
rection  the  man  might  face  the  literal  geographical 
region  whence  Christ  should  come  to  judge.  The 
sun-myth  has,  I  grant  you,  been  worn  to  rags,  but 
this  concept  of  the  coming  of  Christ  from  the  literal 
East  is  nothing  other  than  a  survival  of  an  element 
of  the  solar  myth.  The  early  Christians,  says  Aris¬ 
tides  in  his  Apology ,  forbade  the  burning  of  bodies  as 
sacrilegious,  for  it  militated  against  the  idea  of  the 
Resurrection  of  the  body.  There  is  upon  the  earth 
more  than  one  race  of  mankind  which  will  not  eat  of 
“  the  sinew  which  shrank,”  nervus  ischiadicus ,  because 
they  believe  it  to  be  the  germ  of  the  Resurrection 
body.1  Shall  we  therefore  wonder  that  in  such  an 
environment,  even  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  the 
Alexandrians  was  confused,  and  that  Origen,  as  it 
appears,  thought  that  the  Resurrection  would  be  due 
to  the  permanence  of  some  organ  or  atom  of  the 
body,  and  that  the  Resurrection  body  itself  would 
assume  the  convenient  shape  of  a  globe. 

b.  Back  of  this  notion  of  the  Resurrection,  or 
rather  resuscitation,  through  the  endurance  of  the 
life  principle  in  some  incorruptible  material  portion 
of  the  body,  lies  a  more  ancient  concept.  The  patri¬ 
arch  Joseph  requested  that  his  body  should  be  em¬ 
balmed  and  carried  to  Canaan  in  order  that  he  might 
sleep  with  his  fathers.  This  desire,  so  frequently 

1  Religion  of  the  Semites ,  3G0,  n.  2  ;  Golden  Bough ,  II.  120. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


227 


found  expressed  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  answers 
to  the  actual  Semitic  folk-faith.  It  is  not  a  figure 
of  speech.  According  to  this  faith  the  dead  in  their 
tombs  slept,  and  dreamed,  and  sometimes  became 
distinctly  awake  to  the  affairs  of  the  world  outside 
the  walls  of  their  vaults.  To  this  folk-faith  at  least 
one  reference  occurs  in  the  gospels.1  For  the  Jews 
said  that  when  the  tribes  were  carried  away  to  cap¬ 
tivity,  sounds  of  weeping  and  lamentation  were 
heard,  as  they  passed  along  by  it,  from  within  the 
tomb  of  their  great  ancestress  Rachel.  The  North¬ 
ern  nations  had  a  similar  belief,2  that  the  dead  dwelt 
inside  the  barrows,  the  great  family  burial  mounds, 
and  there  in  the  darkest  depth  of  night  they  awoke 
from  their  slumber  and  held  unholy  revels.  Later 
on,  the  people  of  mediaeval  Europe  believed  that 
Charlemagne,  crowded  and  throned  in  the  burial 
crypt  beneath  the  dome  at  Aachen,  was  only  sleep¬ 
ing  and  waiting  to  start  up  into  life,  and  at  the 
last  extremity  to  defend  his  realm  against  the  Norse¬ 
men,  who  already  in  his  lifetime  had  caused  the 
great  emperor  a  foreboding  unto  tears.  Barbarossa, 
too,  as  we  all  know  well,  sits  in  solemn  death 
slumber,  beneath  the  Kyffhausberg,  while  the  watch¬ 
ful  eagles  circle  round  the  mountain  peak,  and  whis¬ 
per  in  the  ear  of  the  dead  emperor  the  course  of 
events  as  Christendom  passes  through  the  years  of 

1  St.  Matt.  ii.  18  ;  Jer.  xxxi.  15. 

2  Corp.  Poet.  Boreale ,  II.  4,  14,  and  elsewhere. 


228 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


its  history.  Thus  in  the  ancient  Norse  myth  the 
ravens  of  Odin,  flying  in  circles  about  his  head,  spied 
out  the  doings  of  the  world  and  reported  them  to 
the  All-Father.  Our  own  Western  Indians  will  talk 
to  the  skull  of  a  relative,  or  they  will  whisper  in  the 
ear  of  a  corpse  the  message  which  they  desire  to 
send  to  their  dead  ancestors.  We  ourselves  speak 
of  our  dead  as  u  turning  in  their  graves,”  when  any¬ 
thing  occurs  which  we  feel  sure  would  have  dis¬ 
tressed  them  if  still  in  life.  Pins,  we  know,  should 
never  be  put.  in  a  shroud,  for  they  are  disagreeable 
to  the  dead.  In  the  city  of  Birmingham,  England, 
in  the  year  1886,  a  dead  body  was  exhumed  in  order 
that  the  pins  that  had  been  put  in  the  shroud  might 
be  removed,  and  the  dead  lie  in  comfort  in  the 
grave.1  In  Ireland,  to  this  day,  it  is  believed  that 
the  touch  of  the  hand  of  a  corpse  will  cause  milk  to 
flow.  Among  English  peasants  we  are  told  that  it 
is  not  uncommon  to  seek  the  cure  of  disease  from 
the  touch  of  a  dead  man’s  hand ;  and  it  is  notorious 
in  ecclesiastical  annals  that  in  Corfu  the  consecra¬ 
tion  of  the  bishop  is  effected  by  the  imposition  of 
the  dead  hand  of  St.  Spiridion,  the  only  extant 
Nicene  Father.  From  all  this  it  is  clear  that  the 
primitive  belief  that  the  soul  of  the  dead  remains 
attached  to  the  body  has  never  entirely  perished  out 
of  modern  civilisation.  Mediaeval  Europe,  driven 
nigh  to  madness  by  wars  of  Investiture,  Crusades, 


1  Folklore  Journal ,  V.  162. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


229 


Papal  Interdicts,  the  Black  Death,  and  the  Dancing 
Mania,  saw  skeletons  rise  from  their  graves,  and 
with  bitter  satire  dance  the  dance  of  death.  This 
same  survival  of  the  pagan  theory  of  the  persistent 
continuance  of  the  soul  with  the  body  is  most  admi¬ 
rably  set  forth  in  Robert  Browning’s  poem.  The 
Bishop  orders  His  Tomb  at  St.  PraxeTs  Church , 
where  the  dying  man  says  to  his  sons :  — 

“  I  shall  fill  my  slab  of  basalt  there, 

And  ’neath  my  tabernacle  take  my  rest.  .  .  . 

And  then  how  I  shall  lie  through  centuries, 

And  hear  the  blessed  mutter  of  the  mass, 

And  see  God  made  and  eaten  all  day  long, 

And  feel  the  steady  candle-flame,  and  taste 
Good,  strong,  thick,  stupefying  incense-smoke  ! 

.  .  .  Leave  me  in  my  church,  the  church  for  peace, 
That  I  may  watch  at  leisure  if  he  leers  .  .  . 

Old  Gandolf,  at  me,  from  his  onion-stone.” 

c.  It  was  the  ancient  Egyptian  opinion  that  if  the 
corpse  of  a  man  could  be  kept  from  decay  for  three 
thousand  years,  a  cycle  during  which  one  of  its  sev¬ 
eral  souls,  the  ba ,  completed  a  period  of  existence  in 
the  land  of  Amenti,  the  ghost  world,  then  the  ba  soul, 
and  also  the  ka  soul,  which  had  during  this  period 
remained  in  the  tomb,  and  must  be  furnished  with 
food  and  drink,  would  return  to  their  former  body 
and  revivify  it,1  or  in  lieu  of  the  body,  the  ba  would 

1  J.  A.  S.  Grant  Bey,  Ancient  Egyptian  Beligion;  Renouf, 
Hibbert  Lectures. 


230 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


take  up  with  a  clever  portrait  image  and  reanimate 
it.  It  is  to  this  belief  that  we  owe  the  remarkable 
realistic  statues  of  earliest  Egyptian  art,  the  portrait 
statue  of  the  Lady  Nefert,  who  died  some  six  thou¬ 
sand  years  ago,  and  of  Khaf-ra,  who  departed  this 
life  three  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  years 
before  our  era,1  leaving  a  large  number  of  images  of 
himself  in  order  that  when,  at  the  end  of  the  cvcle 
of  three  thousand  years,  the  ba  soul  returned  from 
the  land  of  Amenti,  it  might  not  fail  to  find  at  least 
one  form  to  inhabit.  This  doctrine  of  resuscitation 
was  the  core  of  the  Egyptian  theory.  Their  specula¬ 
tive  theology  was  embodied  in  the  myth  of  Osiris, 
and,  with  their  moral  theology,  in  the  Book  of  the 
Dead.  Both  of  these  were  concerned  with  the 
revivification  of  the  body.  The  lifelong  purpose 
of  the  Egyptian  was  by  any  means  to  attain  unto 
the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  The  likeness  of 
the  story  of  the  passion,  death,  and  resuscitation 
of  Osiris  to  the  Christian  gospel  was  recognised  by 
Tertullian,  —  and  why?  Because  Tertullian  held  not 
the  Christian  idea  of  Resurrection  taught  by  Jesus, 
and  rehearsed  by  Paul,  but  rather  a  superstition,  not 
yet  in  these  days  of  ours  abandoned,  that  the  soul  or 
spirit  is  material.  Hence  Tertullian  sees  no  impro¬ 
priety  in  styling  Osiris  the  Egyptian  Christ.  It  is 

1  Brugsch,  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs ,  37.  It  is  probable  that 
to  this  belief  the  Greeks  owed  their  first  Art  impulse,  for  they  de¬ 
rived  their  earliest  Art  from  Egypt  at  this  period. 


231 


THE  RESURRECTION. 

clear  from  his  treatises 1  that  Tertullian  held  the 
Egyptian  doctrine  of  resuscitation  and  not  the  Chris¬ 
tian  doctrine  of  Resurrection.  Tertullian’s  phrase 2 
is  44  with  the  restitution  of  flesh.”  3 

d.  The  Catacombs  prove  that  folk-faith  rather  than 
philosophy  closed  the  consciousness,  of  the  Roman 
Church  at  any  rate,  against  the  Christian  doctrine. 
For  lamps  were  shut  in  with  the  corpse  in  the  grave, 
to  light  the  dead  as  they  lay  in  the  tomb,  — 

“  To  chase  the  spirits  that  love  the  night.” 

The  Eucharist  was  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  corpse. 
From  some  epitaphs  it  is  evident  that  opinions  not 
much  differing  from  the  Egyptian  obtained  also 
among  the  early  Christians.  Here  is  one:  44 1  adjure 
all  holy  Christians,  and  thee,  keeper  of  happy  Julian, 
by  God  and  by  the  fearful  day  of  judgment,  that  his 
tomb  may  never  at  any  time#  be  violated,  but  may  be 
guarded  even  to  tli®  end  of  the  world,  in  order  that 
I  without  hindrance  may  return  to  this  life,  when  He 
shall  come  to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead.”4  The 
feeling  that  the  Resurrection  depends  upon  the  preser¬ 
vation  of  the  material  remains  survives  in  many  a 
form  to  this  very  day.  The  kings  of  Spain  are  dead 
and  turned  to  stone  that  they  may  not  perish  utterly. 

1  De  Virg.  Vel.,  c.  i.,  and  Adv.  Prax .,  c.  ii. 

2  De  Prescr.,  c.  xiii. 

♦  3  Cum  Carnis  Bestitutione. 

*  Bennett,  Christian  Archaeology,  256,  529. 


232 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Witness  the  fear  recently  expressed  that  somehow 
cremation  mi  edit  interfere  with  the  Resurrection. 

O 

Strongly  was  the  idea  of  the  epitaph  from  the  Cata¬ 
combs  repeated  in  that  famous  epitaph  whose  male¬ 
diction  Miss  Bacon  dared :  — 

“  Good  trend  for  Iesus  sake  forbeare 

To  digg  the  dust  encloased  heare : 

Blest  be  ye  man  yt  spares  thes  stones, 

And  curst  be  he  yt  moves  my  bones.” 

From  the  half-realised  conviction  that  somehow 
life  lingers  for  a  long  while,  if  not  forever,  in  or 
about  the  remains  of  the  dead,  has  arisen  the  belief 
in  the  sacredness  of  the  tombs  of  the  saints,  the  use 
of  these  tombs  for  Christian  altars,  or,  according  to 
the  Roman  Church,  the  making  of  every  altar  into  the 
tomb  of  a  saint  by  placing  relics  therein.  Harnack  1 
traces  the  development  of  the  cultus  of  relics,  and 
points  out  the  survival  of  fetish  and  magic  elements 
therein.  To  this  survival  is  due  also  the  belief  in 
the  efficacy  of  the  bones  or  relics  of  the  saints  for 
miracle  working ;  among  the  native  Australians  the 
charm  to  produce  sickness  is  the  yountoo.2  The 
yountoo  is  a  small  bone  from  the  leg  of  one  man, 
wrapped  in  a  piece  of  flesh  cut  from  another  man, 
tied  with  hair  from  the  third  man.  The  Talmud3 
says  that  for  “  twelve  months,  as  long  as  the  body  is 

1  Dogmenges.  II.  7,  n.  2,  41,  n.  2,  416. 

2  King,  Supernatural,  144. 

3  Sabbath ,  xv.  26. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


283 


still  uncorrupted,  the  soul  hovers  up  and  down”;  but 
Maimonides  said  that  for  three  days  the  soul  hovered 
over  the  body,  and  then  if  it  found  the  countenance 
unchanged  flew  away.  In  my  part  of  the  country  it 
is  customary  to  bury  on  the  third  day,  not  sooner. 
Then  there  remains  for  us  to  notice  a  contrary  the¬ 
ory  which  arises  from  this  same  notion.  This  theory 
is  that  the  body  is  a  clog  to  the  soul,  and  should  be 
burned  away  in  order  that  the  soul  may  soon  be 
freed.  This  thought  inquires, — 

“  Why,  if  the  Soul  can  fling  the  Dust  aside, 

And  naked  on  the  Air  of  Heaven  ride, 

Wer’t  not  a  Shame  —  wer’t  not  a  Shame  for  him 
In  this  clay  carcase  crippled  to  abide  ?  ” 

According  to  this  theory  every  effort  to  quickly 
and  completely  destroy  the  body  ought  to  be  made. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  common  opinion  among  Greek 
Christians,  that  in  punishment  for  the  sins  of  the 
soul  the  body  of  one  who  has  died  excommunicate 
simply  becomes  hard  and  black  as  iron,  and  will 
never  decay  until  its  excommunication  is  removed 
with  the  full  rites  of  the  Church.1  The  modern 
Greek’s  curse  is,  “  May  the  earth  not  eat  you  ”  ;  and 
if  he  finds  a  corpse  undecayed,  it  is  to  him  a  sure 

f 

proof  that  the  same  is  a  vampire  who  at  night  comes 
forth  from  his  grave  to  drink  the  life-blood  of  cattle 
and  of  men.2  Vampirism  came,  we  are  told,  from 

1  Picart,  III.  125. 

2  Garnett,  Christian  Women  of  Turkey.  The  Greek  called  the 
coffin  sarcophagus,  “  flesh-eater.” 


234 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


the  ancient  Babylonians  who  had  inherited  it  from 
the  prehistoric  Summero- Akkadian  religion,  where 
Mnl-lil  restrained  the  spirits  of  the  dead  from  re¬ 
turning  to  the  earth  and  devouring  living  flesh 
and  blood  and  so  getting  bodies  again.1  It  is  plain 
that  from  this  came  the  popular  superstition  about 
ghouls.  The  lasting  bond  between  soul  and  body 
implied  a  notion  of  a  fleshly  Resurrection,  which 
you  may  see  emphasised  in  the  Jewish  Apocalyptic 
books  of  the  two  centuries  before  our  era.  Now 
against  this  theory  of  Resurrection  St.  Paul  deter¬ 
minedly  girds.2  The  Pauline  teaching  is,  at  all 
events,  clearly  this,  the  victory  of  the  spirit,  we 
might  almost  without  hesitation  say  the  doctrine  of 
the  transformation  of  matter,  an  abolition  of  dual¬ 
ism  by  the  uplift  of  matter  to  a  higher  plane.  Phi¬ 
losophy  in  the  West,  with  its  obstinate  adherence  to 
an  obsolete  theory  of  atoms,  and  to  the  belief  in  the 
self-subsistence  and  eternity  of  matter,  coupled  with 
folk-faith  in  vampirism  and  the  like,  has  survived 
in  the  dogma  of  fleshly  revivification,  as  the  Latin 
creeds  show. 

e.  The  Gnostic  Christians,  because  of  their  orien¬ 
talism  and  tendency  to  dualism,  revived  the  notion 
of  no  Resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  they  asserted  that 
Christ’s  Resurrection  was  seeming  only,'  docetic,  and 

1  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures.  Consequently  rites  of  necromancy 
usually  involved  the  shedding  of  blood.  Cf.  Od.  XI.  36,  97. 

2  Pfleiderer,  Hibbert  Lectures. 


235 


» 


THE  RESURRECTION. 

that  human  souls  in  general  would  be  revived  with¬ 
out  a  Resurrection.  Both  the  Gregories,  of  Nazianzus 
and  of  Nyssa,  adopted  spiritual  ideas  of  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion  similar  to  those  of  Origen.  St.  John  Chrysos¬ 
tom  improved  still  further  upon  the  idea  of  the 
theologians  who  had  preceded  him.  Indeed,  he  ap¬ 
proached  the  Pauline  position ;  but  the  disrepute  into 
which  Origen  had  fallen  caused  a  reaction  from  his 
reasonable  way  of  developing  theological  ideas.  The 
old  Roman  Creed,  instead  of  saying  Resurrection  of 
the  body  or  Resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of  which 
are  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  according  to  Scriptural 
and  primitive  testimony,  said  “  Resurrection  of  the 
flesh.”  Rufinus  went  further  and  said,  “  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  this  flesh  ”  ;  and  St.  Jerome,  not  satisfied  with 
this  degree  of  literalism,  went  on  to  reassert  with 
grossest  sensual  detail  his  faith  in  the  resuscitation 
of  the  flesh.1  Even  Prudentius,  in  a  hymn,  exults 
that,  without  the  loss  of  tooth  or  nail,  the  grave 
should  cast  him  forth.2  Both  Theophilus  of  Alex¬ 
andria  and  Epiphanius  echo  this  notion  of  the  early 
stage  of  culture.  St.  Augustine,  however,  at  first  op¬ 
posed  such  crude  literalism,  and  denied  the  resusci¬ 
tation  of  the  flesh,  stating  a  Resurrection  of  the  body;3 

1  Hagenbach,  Hist.  Doct.  II.  91  ;  Harnack,  Dogmenges.  I.  74  ff., 
151  ff.,  223,  232,  etc. 

2  Nee  me  vel  dente  vel  ungue  Fraudatum  revomet  patefacti  fossa 
sepulchri. 

3  Be  Fide  et  Symb.,  c.  x. 


236 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


but  in  later  life  in  his  Enchiridion 1  he  gives  us  a 
grotesque  picture  of  the  Resurrection,  suitable  as 
a  text  for  the  Etruscan  gloom  and  terror  of  that 
Last  Judgment  in  the  Campo  Santo  of  Pisa,  long 
supposed  to  be  the  work  of  Orcagna.  “From  the 
beginning  no  one  in  Christian  theology,”  says  Har- 
nack,  “taught  the  naked  immortality  of  the  soul. 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  immortality  was  bound 
up  in  the  thought  of  the  Resurrection.”  In  the 
Middle  Ages  the  great  rationalist  Aquinas  made 
some  effort  to  develop  from  the  point,  where  the 
Fathers  had  left  it,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Resurrection,  but  he  was  hampered  by  the  Arabian 
philosophy  of  the  materiality  of  the  soul,  and  by 
Aristotle’s  doctrine  of  form  and  matter,  as  it  had 
been  accepted  by  the  Church.  The  Summa ,  as  is 
well  known,  teaches  four  principal  qualities  of  the 
risen  body : 2  clarity,  agility,  impassibility,  and  subt¬ 
lety.  The  doctrine  of  the  soul’s  consciousness  in 
the  intermediate  state  was  in  the  Middle  Ages 
strongly  emphasised  and  set  forth  by  the  effigies  of 
that  time,  which  were  carved  with  eyes  open  and 
hands  joined  in  prayer.  The  Divina  Commedia ,  after 
the  year  1300,  must  have  made  the  life  of  the  un¬ 
seen  world  very  vivid  to  Christian  imagination,  dis¬ 
tinct  like  those  glowing  domes  of  incandescent  iron, 
when  Dante  first  beheld  the  city  of  Dis  against  the 

1  c.  lxxxviii. 

2  Summa  Theol.  Ia.  97,  IIIa.  54  ff. ;  Supplem.  83  ff. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


237 


dense  blackness  of  the  subterranean  world.  Modern 
Protestantism  represents  the  dead  as  though  they 
were  unconscious,  “Asleep  in  Jesus.”  Look  at  the 
Byzantine  or  at  the  pre-Raphaelite  paintings  of  the 
dead  Christ  on  His  Cross.  There  you  find  no  pietas, 
with  limp  and  powerless  body,  but  Christ  upright, 
strong,  with  eyes  wide  open,  that  look  past  you  into 
the  secrets  of  Eternity %  and  a  countenance  vivid  with 
a  mystic  and  solemn  joy.  It  is  the  boast  of  modern 
Spiritism  that  it  revives  faith  in  the  dual  nature  of 
man  and  in  the  conscious  state  of  the  dead,  even 
though  of  disembodied  spirits.  Nevertheless,  epi¬ 
taphs  and  hymns  still  go  on  asserting  the  ancient 
heresy  of  the  soul’s  sleep  in  death,  —  a  notion  thor¬ 
oughly  pagan,  even  if  Athenagoras  did  broach  it, 
a  notion  without  foundation  in  the  teaching  and 
example  of  the  Lord  Christ.  Nowhere  does  the 
New  Testament  literally  teach  that  death  is  a  sleep.1 
How  slowly  Christian  receptiveness  corresponds  to 
revelation !  How  grotesque  our  survivals  of  primi¬ 
tive  folk-faith,  in  that  astonishing  structure  of  Chris¬ 
tian  theology  where,  — 

“  Fiends  and  dragons  on  the  gargoyled  eaves 
Watch  the  dead  Christ  between  the  living  thieves.” 

f.  As  substitutes  for  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Resurrection,  there  have  been  offered  to  modern 
civilisation  some  theories  of  re-incarnation,  trans- 


1  Delitzscli,  Bibl.  Psych.  490. 


238 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


migration  of  souls,  and  of  Karma.  These  are,  all  of 
them,  revivals  of  a  faith  belonging  to  lower  stages 
of  religious  culture,  and  finding  response  in  recep¬ 
tiveness  of  the  same  grade.  Likewise  we  are  ear¬ 
nestly  bidden  to  content  ourselves  with  joining,  “  The 
choir  invisible  of  those  immortal  dead  who  live 
again  in  lives  made  better  by  their  presence. Quite 
noble,  but  quite  as  superfluously  impersonal !  sounds 
like  an  invitation  to  a  Barmecide  feast.  Transmigra¬ 
tion  is  definite.  The  Jewish  Talmud  teaches  it. 
Cain  is  said  to  have  had  three  souls :  one  passed 
into  Jethro,  one  into  Korah,  and  the  third  into  the 
Egyptian  whom  Moses  slew.  The  doctrine  of  Pythag¬ 
oras  is  well  known.  Plato  fancied  that  souls  of 
very  superior  people  passed  into  separate  stars,  and 
his  own  epigrams  upon  the  soul  of  his  dead  son 
Aster  are  among  the  most  touching  and  beautifully 
humane  bits  of  verse  in  Greek  anthology.1  That 
there  could  not  always  have  been  among  Greeks  of 
the  highest  culture  and  spiritualistic  temper  of  mind 
a  complete  absence  of  the  idea  of  the  revivification 
of  the  body,  appears  from  the  use  which  the  Greek 
dramatists  made  of  the  pathetic  stories  of  Per¬ 
sephone  and  Eurydice,  of  Alcestis  and  Medea.  In¬ 
deed,  the  Lesser  Mysteries  of  Eleusis,  to  which  the 
Greek  plays,  which  were  the  dramas  of  the  Dionysia, 
belonged,  must  in  setting  forth  their  peculiar  mythos, 
have  laid  stress  upon  some  idea  of  the  Resurrection ; 


1  Bergk,  Anthologia  Lyrica ,  109. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


239 


and  we  can  guess  therefrom  that  the  Greater  Mys¬ 
teries  enlarged  and  intensified  the  hope.  Modern 
theosophy  endeavours  to  revive  in  Western  Christen¬ 
dom  the  doctrine  of  Karma.  It  was  the  teaching  of 
Sakya  Muni  that  to  attain  blessedness  one  must 
gain  extinction  of  consciousness  of  existence,  at  any 
rate  of  individual  existence.  This  attainment  is  to 
be  acquired  by  abandonment  of  the  will  to  live,  that 
is,  the  will  to  assert  self-existence. 

“  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Karma.  Learn  ! 

Only  when  all  the  dross  of  sin  is  quit, 

Only  when  life  dies  like  a  white  flame  spent, 

Death  dies  along  with  it. 

“  Say  not,  1 1  am,’  ‘  I  was,’  or  ‘  I  shall  be.’ 

Think  not  ye  pass  from  house  to  house  of  flesh 
Like  travellers  who  remember  and  forget, 

Ill-lodged  or  well-lodged.  Fresh 

“  Issues  upon  the  Universe  that  sum 
Which  is  the  lattermost  of  lives.  It  makes 
Its  habitation  as  the  worm  spins  silk 
And  dwells  therein.” 

“  Kill  out  ambition,  kill  out  desire  of  life,  kill  out 
desire  of  comfort,”  says  Light  on  the  Path ,  our  mod¬ 
ern  theosophic  treasury  of  devotion. 

“Then  Sorrow  ends,  for  life  and  death  have  ceased; 

How  should  lamps  flicker  when  their  oil  is  spent? 

The  old,  sad  count  is  clear,  the  new  is  clean ; 

Thus  hath  a  man  content.” 


240 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


According  to  this  theory,  it  is  by  annihilation  of  the 
will  that  blessedness  is  attained,  for  the  flame  of  life 
is  blown  out  —  Nirvana,  such  was  the  doctrine  of 
Gautama  Buddha.  Now  this  is  the  very  opposite  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  says,  in  effect,  “  Acquire 
the  intensest  personality,  and  will  of  such  sort  as 
shall  re-incarnate  itself,  not  by  being  born  down  into 
the  world  in  many  successive  earthly  bodies,  but  up 
out  of  the  world  in  one  spiritual,  heavenly  body,  and 
upon  some  loftier  level  of  life.”  Strictly  considered, 
Karma  is  not  at  all  a  religious  idea,  but  is  merely  a 
statement  of  the  theory  of  the  permanence  of  physi¬ 
cal  force. 

IV.  We  owe  thanks  to  Hegel  for  putting  modern 
thought  in  the  way  of  receiving  the  Pauline  teaching 
of  the  Resurrection  of  the  body.  Hegel  it  was  who 
pointed  out 1  the  evidence  of  a  process  of  Resurrection 
in  the  history  of  humanity.  The  theory  of  the  evo¬ 
lution  of  physical  life  absolutely  demands  our  accept¬ 
ance  of  the  fact  of  a  Resurrection,  as  Robert  Browning 
shows  at  large  in  his  poem,  Easter  Day.  And  thus 
the  Resurrection  becomes  for  us,  as  I  have  tried  to 
show,  the  only  true  solution  of  the  mystery  of  pain. 
In  the  Light  of  the  Cross  of  Calvary  and  of  the  tomb 
in  the  garden,  pain  and  death  are  beheld  as  steps  in 
the  stairway  to  a  higher  life.  In  pain  and  grief  we 
recognise  a  sure  token  of  the  glorious  fulness  of  the 
life  to  which  humanity  must  eventually  attain.  The 


1  Phil.  Hist.,  56. 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


241 


Resurrection  gives  us  a  meaning  of  life  ;  not  that  life 
is,  as  Bunyan  so  beautifully  puts  it,  but  a  pilgrimage, 
nor  that  life  is  a  probation,  in  the  sense  that  God  from 
His  far-off  Heaven  has  reached  down  an  arm  and  put 
us  into  the  world  to  try  us,  if  perchance  we  may  fail ; 
but  in  the  light  of  the  Christian  Resurrection  life  is 
seen  to  be  growth ;  my  own  dim  life  should  teach  me 
this ;  life  also  is  an  education,  God’s  word  teaches  me 
that  and  God’s  world  also.  Nature,  like  some  august 
Sybil  of  gigantic  stature,  as  Michael  Angelo  painted 
her  high  on  the  shadowy  vaultings  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel,  is  chanting  the  oracles  of  Eternal  Wisdom, 
who,  reaching  from  one  end  to  the  other  mightily, 
doth  sweetly  order  all  things.  Growth,  says  the  cos¬ 
mic  hymn,  without  Resurrection  is  impossible.  Some¬ 
where  there  must  be  an  open  gate  to  the  world,  or 
the  procession  of  progress  is  stopped.  Somewhere 
the  stream  of  life  has  an  outlet  into  that  immortal 
sea  that  brought  us  hither,  else,  dammed  up,  the  river 
of  Life  would  set  back  and  form  dead  waters.  In  the 
light  of  evolution,  progress,  and  growth  we  lack  no 
certitude  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  Individ¬ 
ual  character,  or  soul,  demands  that  there  be  a  Resur¬ 
rection.  Unless  there  be  a  spiritual  uprise,  unless  a 
mastery  of  spirit  and  its  potencies  for  righteousness, 
over  flesh  and  sense,  we  could  not  increase  in  wisdom 
and  stature,  and  favour  with  God  and  men. 

“  Poor  vaunt  of  life,  indeed, 

Were  man  but  formed  to  feed 

On  joy  —  to  solely  seek,  and  find,  and  feast.” 


242 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


This  is  what  I  alluded  to  in  explaining  the  process 
of  the  rise  in  the  spirit  of  the  sense  of  divine  sonship, 
that  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God  for  which  the 
creation  is  groaning  in  birth-pangs,  the  eternal  birth, 
a  process  which  Pessimism  perceives  only  as  irremed¬ 
iable  woe :  — 

“  The  weariness,  the  fever,  and  the  fret 
Here  where  men  sit  and  hear  each  other  groan.” 

In  the  light  of  the  first  Easter  morn  the  meaning 
of  agony  in  flesh  and  spirit  is  revealed  to  be  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  ever-continuing  birth  into  the  knowledge 
of  God,  which  is  eternal  life,  because  it  is  the  identity 
of  truth  and  life.  Knowledge,  not  existence,  is  the 
description  of  eternal  life  which  Jesus  gave.  Thus 
it  is  that  God  speaks  in  the  soul  and  through  the 
soul  of  man,  and  the  word  becomes  flesh.  Let  us  so 
teach  the  Resurrection  that  its  ethical  import  will  so 
vitalise  the  dogma,  that  men  may  comprehend  that  it 
is  something  more  than  an  historic  fact  about  which 
the  Church  labours  to  show  that  the  testimony  was 
sufficient,  something  more  than  an  historic  fact  which 
was  given  as  evidence  that  what  Jesus  said  was  true  ; 
but  rather  in  the  apostolic  spirit,  let  us  endeavour 
to  make  men  comprehend  how  the  Resurrection  is 
a  factor  of  human  life  and  character,  and  how  the 
Resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  in  the  measure  that 
it  is  actualised  in  our  personal  lives  becomes  the 
power  unto  a  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  Thus  life 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


243 


may  be  clear  in  its  purpose  and  plain  in  its  conti¬ 
nuity,  thus  that  life  of  the  world  of  nature,  that  inner 
force  that  works  in  wondrous  ways  of  unfolding,  of 
expansion,  of  dominance  over  matter  and  the  trans¬ 
mutation  of  it,  may  be  seen  to  operate  in  the  world 
of  souls.  The  soul  that  grows  strong  in  righteous¬ 
ness,  the  righteousness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
because  it  gains  the  victory  of  the  Spirit,  shall  rise 
from  the  dead,  because  it  is  not  possible  it  shall  be 
holden  of  death.  Finally,  in  the  unity  of  the  divine 
process,  we  see  how  pain  and  death  are  always  and 
everywhere  the  inevitable  transition,  the  resultant 
Resurrection  unto  life.  The  revelation  of  God  in  the 
world  and  in  Christ  shows  us  that 

“  As  a  god  self-slain  on  his  own  strange  altar, 

Death  lies  dead.” 

Nature  therefore  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word, 
Natura ,  meant  just  this  process  of  birth,  and  natural 
science  reveals  to  us  that  there  is  going  on  always 
in  the  world  a  process  of  the  victory  of  spiritual  over 
material  elements,  and  of  transferrence  of  the  centre 
of  the  output  of  energy  from  matter  to  spirit.  From 
that  centre  it  energises  forth,  changing  and  control¬ 
ling  all  from  its  spiritual  force  centre,  generating  that 
spiritual  body  which  it  is  not  possible  should  be 
holden  of  death.  Therefore  we  look  for  a  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  the  dead. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


The  mere  article  of  a  future  life  is  not  in  itself  the  test  of  superi¬ 
ority  of  one  creed  over  another,  for  besides  that  it  may  be  grossly 
misconceived,  the  bare  image  of  a  futurity  is  nothing,  and  merely 
shows  a  different  condition  of  the  popular  fancy. 

J.  B.  Mozlev,  D.D.,  Lectures. 

Now  wherever  a  man  hath  been  made  a  partaker  of  the  divine 
nature,  in  him  is  fulfilled  the  best  and  noblest  life  and  the  worthi¬ 
est  in  God’s  eyes  that  hath  been  or  can  be.  And  of  that  eternal 
Love  which  loveth  Goodness  as  Goodness  for  the  sake  of  Goodness, 
a  true,  noble,  Christ-like  life  is  so  greatly  beloved,  that  it  will 
never  be  forsaken  or  cast  off.  This  life  is  not  chosen  in  order  to 
serve  any  end,  or  to  get  anything  by  it,  but  for  the  love  of  its 
nobleness  and  because  God  loveth  and  esteemeth  it  greatly. 

Tlieologia  Germanica ,  c.  28. 

Wem  Zeit  ist  wie  Ewigkeit 
Und  Ewigkeit  wie  Zeit, 

Der  ist  befreit 
Yon  allem  Streit. 

Jacob  Bohme. 

We  think  that  the  way  of  blessings  and  prosperous  accidents  is 
the  finer  way  of  securing  our  duty,  and  that  when  our  heads  are 
anointed,  our  cups  crowned,  and  our  tables  full,  the  very  caresses 
of  our  spirits  will  best  of  all  dance  before  Ark,  and  sing  perpetual 
Anthems  to  the  honor  of  our  Benefactor  and  Patron  God :  and  we 
are  apt  to  dream  that  God  will  make  His  Saints  reign  here  as 
kings  in  a  millenary  kingdom,  and  give  them  riches  and  fortunes 
of  this  world,  that  they  may  rule  over  men,  and  sing  psalms  to  God 
forever. 

Bp.  Jeremy  Taylor,  Sermon,  Of  God's 
Method  of  Curing  Sinners. 


246 


Faustus. 

When  I  behold  the  heavens,  then  I  repent, 

And  curse  thee,  wicked  Mephistopliilis, 

Because  thou  hast  depriv’d  me  of  these  joys. 

Mepliistophilis. 

Why,  Faustus, 

Thinkest  thou  heaven  is  such  a  glorious  thing  ? 

I  tell  thee,  Faustus,  it  is  not  half  so  fair 
As  thou,  or  any  man  that  breathes  on  earth. 

Faustus. 

How  prov’st  thou  that  ? 

Mephistopliilis. 

’Twas  made  for  man,  therefore  is  man  more  excellent. 

Marlowe,  Tragical  Historic  of 
Doctor  Faustus. 


247 


SYNOPSIS. 


Introduction  : 

The  Christian  idea  of  Eternal  Life  unique. 

I.  —  Comparative  Religion  : 

Three  classes  of  theories  of  future  life. 

a.  Transmigration  or  Re-incarnation. 

b.  Continuation,  on  this  earth,  beyond  it. 

c.  Retribution, — vindictive,  compensative,  reforma¬ 

tory. 

II.  — Biblical  Theology  : 

Contrast  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  which  is  that  Eternal  Life 
is  of  the  present.  This  is  particularly  set  forth  in 
St.  John’s  Gospel,  which  is  especially  the  gospel  of 
life  ;  and  it  follows  necessarily  that  such  is  the  nature 
of  Eternal  Life  if  God  be  immanent  in  this  time- 
world.  A  further  examination  into  the  nature  and 
characteristics  of  Eternal  Life. 

III.  —  Obstacles  to  the  Reception  of  the  Gospel  of  Eternal  Life ; 

the  part  played  by  clericalism  and  the  notion  of  a  com¬ 
mercial  atonement  in  nursing  survivals  of  folk-faitli  in 
the  eschatology  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  tendency  to  sub¬ 
stitute  dogma  for  life  as  an  easier  way  of  making  Chris¬ 
tians.  The  force  of  the  moral  sanction  of  rewards  and 
punishments  —  now  passing  away  —  still  measurably 
valid  where  it  remains  efficient.  Eternal  Life  manifested 
on  Calvary  as  the  Revealment  of  the  Immanent  Love. 
God  Eternal,  because  infinitely  holy.  Jesus  gave  His 
life,  rather  than  His  death,  for  the  world.  Eternal  Life 
is  to  live  according  to  God.  This  gospel  teaching  of  life 
eternal  finds  modern  Science  accommodating  herself  to 
it,  —  and  also  Philosophy. 

IV.  — This  doctrine  of  Eternal  Life  is  real,  and  therefore  a  saving 

doctrine,  for  which  reason  we  find  it  helpful  to  preach 
and  consoling  to  teach. 


248 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


Gentlemen  :  — 

The  apostle  Paul  in  a  profound  and  richly  signifi¬ 
cant  passage  declares  that  the  changeless  purpose 
and  favour  of  God  were  given  unto  men  from  the 
beginning  of  time,  but  were  clearly  manifested  by 
an  Epiphany,  which  was  Christ  Jesus,  Who  rendered 
death  ineffectual  and  brought  to  light  life  and  incor¬ 
ruption.1 

This  signifies  the  revelation  of  a  new  truth,  not 
the  republication  of  an  old  idea  upon  a  new  and 
Divine  authority.  In  order  that  we  may  detect  the 
absolute  novelty  of  this  Christian  doctrine  we  must 
first  examine  what  ideas  of  immortality  already  were 
extant  in  the  world,  and  in  the  examination  we  shall 
observe  their  effects  upon  Christian  Theology. 

I.  The  primitive  culture  of  mankind  held  in  its 
religious  consciousness  three  typical  theories  of  the 
future  life. 

a.  The  earliest  was  the  conjecture  of  the  transmi¬ 
gration  of  souls  or  their  re-incarnation,  to  which  I 


1  2  Tim.  i.  8,  12,  $VJ7,  acpdapaia. 
249 


250 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


have  already  alluded.1  This  theory  fancied  that  the 
human  soul,  after  leaving  its  body  at  death,  must 
find  some  other  sort  of  body,  and  therefore  will  enter 
a  tree,  a  stone,  or  some  beast  or  man.  The  Karens 
are  in  constant  fear  lest  they  shall  become  possessed 
by  the  wicked  spirit,  la ,  of  some  one  who-  has  died.2 
Some  of  the  negro  tribes  upon  the  gold  coast  believe 
in  three  parts  of  man,  —  his  body,  his  soul  or  ghost, 
and  his  indwelling  spirit  or  kra.  They  suppose  that 
this  kra  existed  before  the  birth  of  the  individual 
man,  and  at  his  death  will  at  its  first  opportunity 
enter  into  some  other  body  or  thing.3  If  unable  to 
find  a  tenement,  it  wanders  around  about  the  earth 
as  a  malignant  demon ;  the  soul  or  ghost,  however, 
at  death,  proceeds  to  the  land  of  the  dead,  and  there 
remains.  The  Navajo  Indians,  likewise,  believe  man 
is  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  and  that  the  spirit  was  pre¬ 
existent  and  is  indestructible.  Other  North  Ameri¬ 
can  Indians,  when  their  little  children  die,  will  bury 
the  bodies  along  the  wayside,  in  the  hope  that  the  soul 
of  the  dead  child  may  re-enter  the  body  of  its  mother 
as  she  passes  by,  and  so  be  born  again.  Negroes 
in  harsh  slavery  have  been  known  to  commit  suicide 
in  order  that  they  might  be  born  again,  and  by  good 

1  Tylor,  Prim.  Cult.  II.  c.  12. 

2  The  Karens  of  the  Golden  Chersonese,  128  ff. 

3  This  suggests  the  probable  source  of  the  early  Egyptian  theory 
of  the  return  of  the  soul  after  death  to  reanimate  the  mummy  or  a 
portrait  image. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


251 


hap  into  liberty  in  their  own  land.  The  continuation 
of  family  names  from  generation  to  generation  had, 
no  doubt,  its  origin  in  this  belief.  The  story  of  the 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamlin  is  a  legend  which  arose  from 
just  this  sort  of  animistic  speculation  about  the  soul’s 
life  and  transmigration.  Many  savage  peoples  be¬ 
lieve  that  everything  has  its  ghost,  and  that  when  a 
tree  dies,  its  ghost  travels  to  the  spirit  land.  Hindu 
philosophy  developed  this  notion  of  the  travelling  of 
spirits,  and  their  pre-existence,  in  an  ethical  way, 
making  the  transmigration  of  an  individual  soul  up 
from  the  stone  to  the  Buddha,  through  many  thou¬ 
sand  births,  a  vast  and  complicated  solution  to  the 
problem  of  life  and  the  mystery  of  evil.  The  low- 
caste  Sudra  hopes,  by  a  righteous  life,  to  be  born 
again  as  a  Brahmin,  who  by  knowledge  of  the  Vedas, 
and  meditation  upon  the  same,  will  ultimately  be 
absorbed  in  the  Deity  as  a  drop  of  water  in  the  ocean.1 

“  Om  !  Mani  padmi,  Ora  !  the  Sunrise  comes, 

The  dewdrop  slips  into  the  shining  Sea  ”  — 

is  Sir  Edwin  Arnold’s  favourite  formula  of  a  Buddha 
passing  into  Nirvana.1  Greek  Philosophy  heard  of 
this  notion  of  metempschychosis  when  on  a  visit  in 
Egypt  and  the  East,  was  charmed  with  its  poetry 
and  picturesqueness,  but  never  seriously  adopted  it. 

1  At  this  point  Brahminism  and  Buddhism  agree.  See  Sir 
Monier  Monier- Williams,  Buddhism ,  passim;  Brahminism  and 
Hinduism,  passim. 


252 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Individualism  was  too  strong  in  the  bracing  air  of 
Hellas  and  on  those  Ionian 

“  Sprinkled  isles, 

Lily  on  lily,  that  o’erlace  the  sea.” 

With  Plato  and  Pythagoras  a  theory  of  metempsychosis 
remained  an  eclectic  speculation,  held  in  solution,  it 
is  true,  but  not  definitively  colouring  their  philo¬ 
sophical  systems.  Ritualistic  Braliminism  taught  that 
in  order  to  avoid  the  retribution  of  the  re-incarnation 
of  the  soul  in  many  successive  births,  men  must  offer 
sacrifice.  A  singular  parallel  of  the  development  of 
religious  thought  is  observed  by  comparing  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  the  Brahminic  sacrifices  to  the  hymns  of  the 
Rig  Veda,  with  that  of  the  Levitical  code  to  the  later 
psalms.  It  is  just  possible  that  these  two  lines  of 
development  were  contemporary.  From  the  Sata- 
patha-Brahmana,  translated  by  Sir  Monier  Monier- 
Williams,  I  quote  what  tells  its  own  story. 

“  The  gods  lived  constantly  in  fear  of  Death  — 

The  mighty  Ender  —  so  with  toilsome  rites 
They  worshipped,  and  repeated  sacrifices 
Till  they  became  immortal.  Then  the  Ender 
Said  to  the  gods,  ‘  As  ye  have  made  yourselves 
Imperishable,  so  will  men  endeavour 
To  free  themselves  from  me  :  what  portion  then 
Shall  I  possess  in  man?  ’  The  gods  replied, 

‘  Henceforth  no  being  shall  become  immortal 
In  his  own  body ;  this  his  mortal  frame 
Shalt  thou  still  seize ;  this  shall  remain  thy  own, 


ETERNAL  LIFE.  253 

This  shall  become  perpetually  thy  food. 

And  even  he  who  through  religious  acts 
Henceforth  attains  to  immortality, 

Shall  first  present  his  body,  Death,  to  thee.’  ” 1 

The  later  Jewish  philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages 
adopted  the  theory  of  migration,  or  gilgul,  the  rolling 
on  of  souls  through  successive  incarnations ;  but  this 
was  evidently  an  alien  importation  into  Judaism.  In 
vain  will  sincere  scholarship  seek  to  find  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  metempsychosis  authorised  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  writings.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  see 
signs  of  the  Jewish  belief  in  the  transmigration  of 
souls  in  the  words 2  of  St.  Matthew’s  gospel,  u  Some 
say  that  thou  art  John  the  Baptist,  some  Elias,  and 
others  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets.”  Noth¬ 
ing  more  was  indicated  in  these  words  than  the 
popular  opinion  that  these  men  had  not  really  died, 
but  fallen  asleep,  and  ready  to  start  up  to  deliver 
Israel ;  an  opinion  which  perhaps  survived  in  many 
a  legend  of  early  Jewish  Christianity,  as,  for  example, 
those  of  Prester  John,  and  of  the  Seven  Sleepers  of 
Ephesus.  Appeal  has  been  made  to  St.  John’s  gos¬ 
pel,3  “  Master,  who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents, 
that  he  was  born  blind?”  to  show  that  Jesus  taught 
re-incarnation.  The  obvious  import  of  the  passage  is 
the  rabbinic  doctrine  of  the  inherited  guilt  and  its 
penalty.  This  last  doctrine  has  survived  in  our 

1  Sir  Monier  Monier- Williams,  Brahminism  and  Hinduism ,  24. 

2  xvi.  14.  3  ix.  2. 


254 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


grosser  forms  of  the  theology  of  original  sin,  in 
traducianism,  and  likewise  in  the  notion  of  a  revivi¬ 
fied  body,  into  which,  as  into  a  house,  the  soul  shall 
enter  at  the  last  day,  instead  of  the  Resurrection 
body  concerning  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  taught. 
Again,  that  saying  of  Christ’s,  “  If  ye  will  receive  it 
this  is  Elias  which  was  for  to  come,”  1  has  been  ex¬ 
plained  by  a  rigid  literalism  in  a  way  to  support  the 
theory  of  transmigration  of  souls.  Further  it  is  not 
worth  our  while  to  pursue  this  form  of  an  evolution 
from  animism,  this  dream  of  the  Pantheist  and  poet, 
this  brave  attempt  to  solve  the  enigma  of  sin  and 
pain.  After  the  days  of  the  Gnostics  and  the  Mani- 
chees  the  teaching  of  transmigration  of  souls  fell  out 
of  sight  in  Christendom.  It  really  belongs  to  ema¬ 
nation  theories.  Here  and  there  in  the  history  of 
Christian  thought  there  have  been  sporadic  survivals 
of  the  notion;  for  instance,  the  Druses  in  the  East, 
some  mediaeval  popular  sects,  Scotus  Erigena,  the 
Knights  of  the  Order  of  the  Temple,  probably,  and 
the  peasants  of  the  Slavic  churches  at  the  present 
time.  There  have  been  also  revivals  of  the  opinion 
by  some  Platonists,  such  as  Henry  More  and  Thomas 
Taylor,  and  by  students  of  Oriental  Theosophy.  I 
have  said  thus  much  only  because  in  this  bric-a-brac 
age  there  have  been  attempts  to  revive  this  theory 
and  to  commend  it  to  Christian  teachers.  The  late 
Professor  Francis  Bowen,  whose  memory  I  revere,  was 

1  St.  Matt.  xi.  14,  avrbs  eanv  'HXei'as  6  /xtWiov  epx^irdou. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


255 


of  tlie  opinion  that  a  “  firm  and  well-grounded  faith 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christian  Metempsychosis  might 
help  to  regenerate  the  world.”  Professor  Bowen  has 
passed  behind  the  veil,  and  perhaps  now  he  knows. 
For  my  part  I  cannot  conceive  of  a  doctrine  of 
metempsychosis  which  is  Christian,  which  does  not 
destroy  moral  responsibility  in  man,  and  which  is 
not  totally  irreconcilable  with  that  revelation  which 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  gave  both  in  Himself  and  in 
His  words  and  works,  of  the  nature  of  eternal  life. 
The  weakness  of  all  forms  of  the  doctrine  of  metemp¬ 
sychosis  is  that  they  make  the  article  of  death  sacra¬ 
mental;  they  either  present  the  future  as  an  anti-climax 
or  as  a  contradiction  to  the  law  of  the  permanence  of 
forces ;  they  presume  that  the  human  will  raised  to 
the  nth  power  can  neutralise  itself;  and,  finally,  they 
find  for  this  theory  no  evidence  in  the  ground  of 
personal  experience  or  in  the  analogy  of  nature.  The 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  Tertullian,  Irenseus,  Augustine, 
and  Origen,  carefully  weighed  the  theory  of  metemp¬ 
sychosis,  and  agreed  in  rejecting  it.1  The  whole 
sj^stem  of  speculation  has,  however,  been  adopted  by 
individual  religious  writers  as  an  escape  from  the 
cruder  horrors  of  an  arbitrary,  ab  extra ,  Tartarus, 
which  had  come  down  to  us  from  primitive  culture. 

b.  We  now  consider  the  common  theory  of  contin¬ 
uation.  According  to  this  theory  of  primitive  folk- 

1  Tertull.  De  Anima,  c.  xxxi. ;  Iren.  Ilcer.  II.  33 ;  Aug.  Faust. 
xx.  21 ;  Orig.  Cels.  VIII.  30,  etc. 


256 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


faith,  the  soul  goes  forth  from  the  body  and  continues 
its  existence  in  the  spirit  land  as  a  naked,  pale,  soft, 
vague,  shadowy  thing.  This  thought  has  been  pre¬ 
cisely  expressed  in  the  Latin  epigram  called  Hadrian’s 
Address  to  his  Soul,  — 

“  Little,  courteous,  wandTing  thing, 

Whither  wilt  thou  turn  thy  wing, 

The  body’s  friend  and  guest? 

Pale  and  naked,  cold  as  clay, 

Forgot,  alas  !  thy  wonted  play, 

Where  wilt  thou  take  thy  rest?”  1 

In  some  parts  of  Christendom  they  will  not  sweep 
the  house  for  days  after  a  death,  and  they  will  not 
leave  sharp-pointed  objects  lying  about,  nor  will  they 
shut  a  door  abruptly,  for  fear  of  hurting  the  poor 
ghost.  In  his  journey  through  the  threefold  world 
of  the  dead,  Dante  was  detected  by  the  resident 
ghosts  because  he  cast  a  shadow  and  moved  what  he 
touched.2 

The  souls  of  the  heroes  whom  Odysseus  saw  were 
but  pale  presentments  of  their  former  selves  until 

1  Animula ,  blandula,  vagula, 

Hospes,  comesque  corporis , 

Quae  nunc  abibis  in  loca? 

Pallidula ,  rigida ,  nudula , 

Nec ,  ut  solas ,  dabisjoca ? 

2  Siete  voi  accorti , 

Che  quel  di  retro  move  cio  eld  ei  tocca? 

Cosi  non  soglion  fare  i  pie  de'  morti. 

Inferno ,  XII.  80. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


257 


they  had  lapped  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice.  Their 
occupations  in  the  shadowless  land  were  the  same 
as  they  had  been  under  the  light  of  the  sun.  In 
that  dream  region  of  the  ghosts,  says  Mr.  Tylor,1 
the  soul  of  the  dead  Karen  with  the  souls  of  his  axe 
and  cleaver,  builds  his  ghost  house  and  harvests  his 
ghost  rice ;  the  shade  of  the  Algonquin  hunter  pur¬ 
sues  the  souls  of  beaver  and  elk,  walking  upon  the 
ghosts  of  his  snow-shoes,  which  had  been  buried  in 
his  grave ;  the  fur- wrapped  Kamtchatkan  in  the  spirit 
land  drives  a  spirit  dog-sled;  the  Zulu  ghost  milks 
his  ghost  cows  and  drives  the  spirit  cattle  into  their 
ghostly  kraal.  The  South  American  lives  on  the 
spirit  lands,  sometimes  sick  and  sometimes  well,  in 
pain  and  in  comfort.  All  these  primitive  folk  expect 
to  live  forever  in  the  spirit  land  a  shadowy  continua¬ 
tion  of  their  existence  in  this.  In  the  hills  of  the 
dead,  the  barrow-tombs  of  the  Scandinavians,2  the 
Norse  warrior,  it  was  believed,  fought  and  feasted, 
feasted  and  fought  on  forever.  The  Ainu  believed 
that  the  souls  of  the  dead  lingered  long  near  the 
grave,  and  that  by  contact  with  them  the  living  became 
ceremonially  unclean,  and,  worse  than  this,  that  by 
character  ghosts  are  universally  mischievous.  They 
endeavour  to  persuade  the  goddess  of  fire  to  lead  the 
souls  of  the  dead  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  ghost 

1  Prim.  Cult.  II. 

2  Long  Lay  of  Brunhild ,  and  Excursus  I.,  Sec.  3,  Corp.  Bor. 
Poet.  II. 


258 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


land,  where,  it  is  believed,  the  soul  of  the  dead  will 
continue  forever  to  work  and  play  and  eat  and  sleep 
as  in  this  life.1  The  Jewish  souls  of  the  dead,  re- 
phaim ,  in  their  tombs  slumbered  a  half-conscious 
trance,  or,  according  to  a  later  notion,  remained 
semi-somnolent  in  the  hollow  caverns  of  the  under¬ 
world,  and  resented  all  interference  from  a  necro¬ 
mancer  such  as  the  witch  of  Endor.  So  it  became  a 
crime  in  Israel  to  rouse  the  souls  of  the  dead  from 
their  empty  slumber  —  empty ;  for,  says  Koheleth,2 
“  there  is  no  work,  no  device,  no  knowledge,  no  wis¬ 
dom  in  Sheol.”  In  Egypt,  however,  by  help  of  the 
pictured  walls  of  the  serdab  of  his  tomb,  the  soul 
ploughed  and  reaped  in  the  spirit  land  of  Amenti; 
with  aid  of  the  same  pictures  he  drove  his  oxen  and 
played  chess  with  his  wife. 

In  earlier  ages  of  Egypt  both  food  itself  and  actual 
articles  of  furniture  and  implements  of  life  were  placed 
in  the  tomb  with  the  dead ;  but  later  on,  it  was  hoped 
that  the  representation  of  the  articles  might  be  suffi¬ 
cient  for  the  ghostly  representation  of  the  man.  In 
a  like  manner,  the  Chinese  who  anciently  offered  to 
their  dead  ancestors  all  sorts  of  sacrifices,  of  things 
in  themselves,  have  now  concluded  that  paper  repre¬ 
sentations  are  sufficient  to  burn  to  the  souls  of  the 
departed.  The  ghost  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  was 

1  J.  Batchelor,  Ainu  of  Japan ,  Chaps.  XV.,  XVI. 

2  Eccl.  ix.  10,  Ps.  lxxxviii.  11 ;  Robertson  Smith,  Belig.  of  the 
Semites ,  217. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


259 


supposed  to  eat  the  offerings  of  the  dead,  food  and 
drink,  placed  before  the  door  of  his  tomb,  a  door 
which  had  been  perforated  in  order  that  the  ba  soul 
might  come  forth  and  relieve  its  hunger.  Likewise 
the  Mahometans  to  this  day  feed  the  ghosts  of 
their  dead,  and  they  also  place  within  the  tomb  a 
seat  convenient  for  the  angel  who  comes  to  judge  the 
dead  shortly  after  his  burial.1  So  the  soul  of  the 
savage  needs  his  weapons  and  armour;  even  his  wives 
must  be  despatched  with  a  bludgeon  or  their  legs 
broken,  and  they  thrown  into  the  grave,  that  they 
may  accompany  him  to  the  land  of  spirits.2  The 
Karens  will  impoverish  themselves  in  order  that  the 
deceased  shall  be  thoroughly  equipped  for  the  next 
world.3  When  the  coffin  is  lowered  into  the  grave, 
everything  that  a  man  could  need  or  desire  is  thrown 
in  with  it,  according  to  the  ability  of  the  mourners. 

A  common  consent  assigned  the  country  of  dead 
souls  to  the  regions  of  the  evening  land,  beyond  the 
setting  of  the  sun  and  baths  of  all  the  western  stars, 
or  to  that  realm  of  fancy,  the  land  east  of  the  sun 
and  west  of  the  moon.  For  good  ghosts  there  were 

1  See  Picart,  Tome  V.,  and  D’Herbelot,  under  Akhrat. 

2  The  London  Standard ,  1890,  gave  a  long  account  of  the  Iu-Iu 
rites  which  occurred  at  the  death  of  a  Calabar  king.  By  accident 
English  traders  entered  the  village,  and  discovered  the  body  of  the 
dead  king  lying  in  a  great  pit,  and  seven  of  his  wives  with  broken 
limbs  placed  beside  him. 

3  A.  R.  McMahon,  Karens  of  the  Golden  Chersonese ,  419.  Cf. 
Batchelor,  Ainu ,  204. 


260 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


also  the  islands  of  the  Hesperides,  full  of  the  stately 
repose  and  the  lordly  delight  of  the  dead,  where  also 
is  the  tree  of  the  apples  of  life,  wondrous,  beautiful, 
and  serpent-guarded,  and  where  a  fountain  of  eternal 
youth  is  always  casting  up  its  sparkling  jet.  This 
creation  of  fancy  we  see  enter  in  some  form  as  an 
element  in  the  Jewish  idea  of  the  Messianic  age,  and 
then  pass  over  into  the  millennarian  visions  of  Papias 
and  the  early  Christian  Church.  Of  this  early  form 
of  the  idea  of  eternal  life  we  have  still  left  in  the 
Creed  the  phrase,  “  Life  of  the  world  to  come,”  lit¬ 
erally  of  the  “  coming  age,” 1  which  phrase  is  a 
Hebraism  for  the  Messianic  age,  and  also  the  earthly 
Paradise  of  the  Millennium  for  the  souls  of  the  right¬ 
eous.  That  dream  passed  away  long  centuries  ago, 
so  long  that  the  phrase  of  the  Creed  no  longer  con¬ 
notes  for  us  what  it  did  for  the  early  Christians,  but 
we  have  a  more  sure  hope.  A  further  development 
of  this  idea  reached  out  beyond  the  earth.  One  of 
the  seers2  of  the  Enoch  writings  thought  of  the  world 
as  a  flat  disk  covered  over  by  a  hollow  hemisphere. 
Just  outside  the  rim  of  this  inverted  cup  he  found 
the  abode  of  the  spirits,  who,  if  any  man  went  to  the 
edge  of  the  world  and  called,  would  come  to  him, 
whether  from  the  u vasty  deep”  or  elsewhere.  Per¬ 
haps  it  was  from  this  pre-Christian  Apocalyptic  book 
that  the  Manichee  developed  his  picturesque  and 

1  toD  ju^Wovtos  alto vos. 

2  Book  of  Enoch,  iv.  1,  v.  1,  xi.  2,  etc. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


261 


■  1 

peculiar  theory  of  the  redemption  and  purgation  of 
souls  after  death.1  Our  Teutonic  ancestors  imagined 
that  the  dead  dwelt  beneath  the  earth  in  Niflheim, 
Nidgard,  or  in  Helheim,  a  cavernous  region  where 
perpetual  gusts  of  sleet  and  snow  were  driven 
through  the  dun  air. 

In  these  earlier  theories,  as  thus  far  you  may 
have  perceived,  the  ethical  characteristic  has  hardly 
emerged  clearly  into  consciousness.  The  thought 
which  underlay  them  was  generally  that  of  an  impar¬ 
tially  unmoral  necessity  of  existence.  The  question 
had  hardly  become  evolved  beyond  the  concepts  of 
pleasure  and  pain.  Consequently  these  primitive 
notions,  save  by  their  imagery,  have  feebly  affected 
the  development  of  Christian  Theology.  I  suspect 
that  this  shadowy  continuation  theory,  emptied  as  it 
is  of  moral  quality,  has  somehow  subtly  survived 
in  Christian  Theology,  in  the  theory  of  essential  or 
native  immortality,  which,  notwithstanding  the  pro¬ 
tests2  of  Justin  Martyr,  Tatian,  Ire  nee  us,  Theophilus 
of  Antioch,  Clement  the  Alexandrine,  Arnobius,  and 
Lactantius,  ultimately  has  dominated  Christian  Es¬ 
chatology.  Possibly  also  it  suggested  those  nebu- 

1  See  Archelaus,  Disp.  with  3Ianes ,  c.  xi. 

2  Barnabas,  xx.  ;  Clement  of  Rome ;  1  Cor.  iii.,  ix.,  xxxv., 
xvi.,  xlvii.,  vii. ;  Ignatius,  To  Folycarp ,  ii. ,  To  Bomans ,  vii. ; 
Hermas,  Sim.,  iii. ;  Didaclie  ;  Justin  Martyr,  Tryph.,  v.  ;  Apology , 
xxxix.,  xlii.,  Iii.  ;  Tatian,  Grciec.,  xiii.,  vii.,  xv.  ;  Theophilus,  To 
Autol.  1. 11,  37  ;  Irenseus,  Her.  II.  34,  etc. ;  Clement  of  Alex.,  Paid. 
I.  3  ;  Arnobius,  Against  Gentiles ,  II.  14-16,  etc. 


L 


262 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


lous  creations,  the  limbus  infantum  and  the  limbus 
patrum ,  states  of  neither  weal  nor  woe.  For  the 
theologians  have  not,  I  think,  determined  which  of 
these  lies  nearest  hell.  Universal  restoration  also,  in 
so  far  as  it  obliterates  moral  distinction,  is  a  survival 
of  the  same  primitive  theory.  Jesus  teaches 1  that 
few  will  be  saved,  —  Universalism  begs  to  differ,  and 
says  “  all  will  be  saved.” 

c.  Succeeding  the  notion  of  a  bare  continuance 
came  the  higher  thought  of  compensation  and  retri¬ 
bution  in  the  future  life.  Man  got  ideas  of  law 
and  justice  in  this  world,  and  projected  them  into 
the  other.  He  figured  to  himself  that  God  is  vin¬ 
dictive,  or  is  retributive,  or  is  compensative,  or  is 
reformatory.  So  in  the  religions  of  the  reflective 
races  of  the  earth,  the  ethical  element  —  I  mean 
sin  and  its  consequence  in  a  future  life  —  ever  arises 
into  a  great  moral  motive  power.  In  later  days  the 
Norse  warrior  came  to  think  that  he  would  be  for¬ 
ever  debarred  from  Valhalla,  should  he  die  peace¬ 
fully,  and  therefore  he  required  that,  at  least,  a  spear 
scratch  should  be  made  on  his  body,  if  he  found  him¬ 
self  dying  of  disease.  A  similar  temper  led  Chris¬ 
tians  to  seek  to  die  in  monastic  habit,  or  with  the 
cord  of  St.  Francis  about  them.  The  newspapers 
gave  account  of  a  curious  custom  of  the  Russian 
Church  which  was  recently  performed  at  the  funeral 
of  the  Grand  Duchess  Paul.  Before  the  coffin  was 


1  St.  Matt.  vii.  14  ;  Luke  xiii.  23. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


263 


finally  closed  upon  the  corpse,  the  Metropolitan 
placed  in  the  hand  of  the  dead  this  writing:  “  We, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  prelate  of  the  holy  Russian 
Church,  write  this  to  our  master  and  friend,  St. 
Peter,  the  gate-keeper  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  We 
announce  to  you  that  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  Her 
Imperial  Highness,  the  Grand  Duchess  Paul,  has 
finished  her  life  on  earth,  and  we  order  you  to 
admit  her  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  without 
delay,  for  we  have  absolved  all  her  sins  and  granted 
her  salvation.  You  will  obey  our  order  on  sight  of 
this  document  which  we  put  into  her  hand.” 

To  all  Semitic  races 1  belongs  the  myth  of  a  sea 
of  outer  darkness  which  surrounds  this  world,  into 
which  all  that  is  evil  will  be  cast,  when  the  earth 
shall  be  purified  for  the  abode  of  the  saints.  But 
the  Aryan  races,  as  indeed  some  of  the  Semites,  con¬ 
ceived  of  a  place  on  the  earth,  or  at  the  end  of  it, 
where  for  an  seon,  fires  should  torment  the  ungodly. 
According  to  the  institutes  of  Vishnu,2  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  heaven  are  able  freely  to  inspect  the  sinners 
in  hell,  who  hang  head  downwards.  This  arrange¬ 
ment  serves  the  double  advantage  of  enhancing  the 
bliss  of  the  gods  and  saints,  and  of  increasing  the 
agonies  of  the  damned. 

The  Jew,  likewise,  bade  you  mark  that  there  was 

1  Cf.  Izdubar  Epic  of  Chaldea,  Book  of  Enoch,  Koran,  and 
Samaritan  Book  of  Joshua. 

2  Hindu  Literature ,  or  the  Ancient  Books  of  India ,  151. 


264 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


but  a  hand-breadth  between  the  flames  of  Gehenna 
and  Abraham’s  bosom.  The  essence  of  these  doc¬ 
trines  of  a  future  state  is  this,  which  already  I  have 
hinted  at  as  being  a  survival  from  a  primitive  stage  of 
culture,  that  physical  pain  purges  away  moral  evil. 
This  has  always  been  taken  for  granted  in  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  religious  thought;  and  Schopenhauer 
makes  grimly  merry  that  our  world  offers  so  much 
more  material  for  constructing  a  graphic  image  of  hell 
than  for  a  definite  picture  of  heaven.  Because  phys¬ 
ical  pain  has  been  assumed  to  compensate  for  spiri¬ 
tual  sin,  asceticism  appeared,  whereby,  in  Hindustan, 
a  man,  or  even  a  demon,  may  become  greater  than 
the  gods ;  and  in  the  Roman  Church  it  is  believed 
that  a  man  is  able  to  accumulate  in  this  way  such 
a  store  of  merits  that  Almighty  God  can  refuse  him 
nothing.  This  fundamental  theory  has  been  accepted 
without  question,  and  it  lies  at  the  base  of  some  of 
the  popular  doctrines  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and 
of  the  atonement,  as  it  is  termed,  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  If  you  believe  that  the  merits  acquired  by 
our  Lord  by  His  suffering  and  death  on  the  Cross 
are  substituted  for  our  sins,  that  is,  reckoned  as  our 
merits,  then  logically  you  ought  to  believe  in  the 
mediation  of  saints,  in  the  appropriation  of  their 
merits,  and  in  indulgences,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
system.  But  if  you  do  accept  this  system,  be  quite 
clear  in  your  mind  about  this  one  thing,  that  its 
fundamental  idea  arose  at  that  stage  of  the  develop- 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


265 


ment  of  mankind  where  man  does  not  distinguish 
between  moral  and  physical  evil. 

Turn  to  the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  or  to  the 
Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead,  or  to  the  pictures  and 
sculpture  on  temple  and  tomb  and  church,  and  you 
will  perceive  to  what  this  theory  of  a  retribution  ab 
extra  has  led.  The  thought  of  the  relation  between 
God  and  men  was  thereby  everywhere  degraded  into 
the  notion  of  the  exaction  of  a  price,  or  a  barter  or  a 
bargain  of  some  sort.  Thus  while  on  the  walls  of  the 
Egyptian  temple 1  were  painted  the  scales  of  Mat,  god¬ 
dess  of  Justice,  wherein  the  human  conscience  was 
outweighed  by  the  feather  of  truth,  so  on  the  walls  of 
mediaeval  churches  were  painted  the  great  balances 
of  God,  wherein  He  weighed  the  good  of  a  soul 
against  its  sin. 

“  It  is  by  no  breath, 

Turn  of  eye,  wave  of  hand,  that  Salvation  joins  issue  with  death.” 

In  one  sense  Dante’s  theory  of  rewards  and  pun¬ 
ishments  was  just  and  rational,  and  Dante,  we  know, 
voiced  the  scholastics.  In  the  Divine  Comedy ,  God 
is  seen  as  Love  unaltering  and  all-pervasive,  which 
to  the  holy  is  warmth  and  light  of  profound  bliss, 
but  to  the  ungodly  the  same  all-embracing  Love  is 
either  tormenting  flame  or  cold  and  darkness.  Every¬ 
thing  depends  upon  the  attitude  of  the  individual  soul 
towards  God.  Implicitly,  therefore,  the  “  wrath  prin- 


1  See  plates  in  Lepsius’  Egypt. 


266 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ciple  ”  is  human  and  subjective.  In  the  earlier  days 
of  Christianity  the  idea  of  future  compensation  so 
warped  the  minds  of  Christian  theologians  that  many 
of  them  could  see  in  the  divine  death  nothing  higher 
than  the  payment  of  a  price.  This  thought  survives 
in  the  doctrine  of  Indulgences.  In  fact,  all  theories 
of  sin  which  sunder  sin  and  its  penalty  fall  into  this 
snare  of  reviving  the  old  idea  of  compounding  for 
guilt,  and  of  placating  a  vindictive  God  by  satisfying 
the  demand  of  his  iron  lex  talionis. 

Not  without  some  excuse  has  this  theory  been 
stated  as  “  the  immolation  of  an  innocent  God,  by 
an  all-loving  God,  to  satisfy  a  perfectly  just  God.” 
We  have  not  so  learned  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  Later 
speculations  of  primitive  men  went  so  far  as  to 
evolve  1  the  idea  of  sensuous  torments  which  have  no 
end,  thus  setting  up  an  eternal  contest  between  good 
and  evil.  This  doctrine,  it  is  said,  was  brought  by 
the  early  Christian  theosophists  from  Persia,  and  has 
been  preserved  for  us  in  Augustinian  theology,  which 
only  transfers  the  mise  en  scene  to  a  future  world  of 
heaven  and  hell.  Is  not  this  virtually  making  an 
omnipotent  God  impotent  to  overcome  evil?  Is  it 
not,  in  effect,  bringing  into  the  theological  world  Die 
G- otter dammerung,  which  Wagner’s  acute  intellect  has 
seized  upon  to  point  out  this  suicidal  element  in 
Christian  Theology.  Read,  I  pray  you,  Mr.  Brown¬ 
ing’s  poem,  Ixion.  If  evil  be  able  to  resist  God,  then 

1  Distinguishing  between  the  poena  damni  and  theponm  sensus. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


267 


it  is  stronger  than  God,  and  by  it  God  is  blotted  out. 
In  Wagner’s  famous  opera,  the  sin  of  Odin  brings  on 
the  conflagration  of  Valhalla. 

To  take  up  the  words  of  Ixion  to  which  I  have 
already  alluded :  — 

“  High  in  the  dome,  suspended,  of  Hell,  sad  triumph,  behold  us  ! 

Here  the  revenge  of  a  God,  there  the  amends  of  a  Man. 
Whirling  forever  in  Torment,  flesh  once  mortal,  immortal 
Made  —  for  a  purpose  of  hate  —  able  to  die  and  revive, 

Pays  to  the  uttermost  pang,  then,  newly  for  payment  replenished, 
Doles  out  —  old  yet  young  —  agonies  ever  afresh. 

“  —  When  Man  pays  the  price  of  endeavour, 
Thunderstruck,  downthrust,  Tartaros-doomed  to  the  wheel, — 
Then,  ay,  then,  from  the  tears  and  sweat  and  blood  of  his  torment, 
E’en  from  the  triumph  of  Hell,  up  let  him  look  and  rejoice  ! 
What  is  the  influence,  high  o’er  Hell,  that  turns  to  a  rapture 
Pain  —  and  despair’s  murk  mists  blends  in  a  rainbow  of  hope  ? 
“  What  is  beyond  the  obstruction,  stage  by  stage  though  it  baffle  ? 

Back  must  I  fall,  confess,  ‘  Ever  the  weakness  I  fled  ’  ? 

No,  for  beyond,  far,  far  is  a  Purity  all-unobstructed ! 

Zeus  was  Zeus  —  not  Man  ;  wrecked  by  his  weakness  I  whirl !  ” 

In  this  way  Mr.  Browning  illustrates  forcibly 
tbe  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  that  subtle  dualism 
which  underlies  the  theological  doctrine  of  punish¬ 
ment  of  sin  by  means  of  sensuous  pain.  Nobler 
and  gracefuller  was  the  temper  of  those  old  heathen 
of  the  Nile  Valley  who  called  none  dead  but  the 
wicked :  the  good  man  they  reverently  named  “  That 
yesterday  who  sees  endless  days.”  The  ghost  world 


268 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


of  rewards  and  punishments  has  filled  an  immense 
space  in  Christian  Theology  from  the  days  of  the 
Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  the  visions  of  the 
Nitrian  monks,  the  dreams  of  Furseus,  Alberigo,  and 
of  the  ecstatic  nuns  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  all 
religions,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  torments  of 
the  other  world  have  formed  the  piece  de  resistance. 
The  journey  of  Odin  in  the  Voluspa ,  Orpheus, 
Odysseus  and  JEneas,  Yama  and  Gwynnidion,  the 
visions  of  Enoch  and  St.  Brandan,  Dante  and  Swe¬ 
denborg,  Bunyan  and  John  Miller,  are  exponents  of 
this  universal  mytlios.  The  survival  of  the  primitive 
idea  of  innate  and  essential  immortality,  that  is  of 
“  an  immortal  soul,”  a  phrase  found  nowhere  in  the 
Bible,  was  with  the  aid  of  Platonic  philosophy  trans¬ 
planted  into  Christian  Theology,  and  gave  rise  to  all 
this  curious  mythology  to  which  I  have  referred. 

II.  In  distinct  contrast  to  all  this  system  are  the 
teachings  of  Jesus.  Not  the  future  life,  but  the 
present,  He  set  forth  as  the  motive  of  righteousness. 
He  taught  the  conditions  of  Eternal  Life.  Ever¬ 
lastingness  is  a  human  corollary  of  eternity.  Nothing 
is  more  striking  than  our  Lord’s  silence  concerning 
the  scenery  of  the  world  unseen.  It  is  true  that  He 
freely  makes  use  of  phrases,  terms,  and  popular 
fancies  then  in  vogue,  to  convey  His  doctrine  ;  but 
in  order  to  indicate  that  such  terms  do  not  literally 
answer  to  the  realities,  He  uses  all  of  them  impar¬ 
tially,  though  they  are  formally  contradictory.  Of 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


269 


the  place  and  environment  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
He  makes  no  picturesque  revelation.  By  means  of 
the  parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  He  distinctly 
declines  to  allow  the  fear  of  future  punishment  to 
be  furnished  as  a  motive  for  godliness.  Nowhere  in 
His  teaching  does  Pie  substitute  other  worldliness  for 
unworldliness ;  nowhere  holds  up  a  scheme  of  future 
rewards  and  punishments,  as  a  reason  for  godly  and 
righteous  living  in  the  present  time.  In  the  Old 
Testament  the  right  life  is  long.  “  That  thy  days 
may  be  long,”  is  the  incentive  which  is  given  in 
the  Commandments,  repeated  in  Deut.  v.  33  as  the 
motive  for  the  whole  Decalogue ;  “  that  ye  may  pro¬ 
long  your  days  in  the  land  which  ye  shall  possess.” 
But  our  Lord  starts  with  a  new  proclamation,  one 
which  is  deeper  and  more  intimate  with  the  very 
essence  of  life.  He  came  that  we  might  have  life 
and  have  it  more  abundantly.1  His  kingdom  is  a 
kingdom  of  Life,  and  into  this  kingdom  of  the  new 
life  each  one  of  us  must  be  born :  “  Except  a  man 
be  born  from  above 2  he  is  not  able  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God.”  “  Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  the  spirit  he  is  not  able  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God.”  Jesus  added,  “He  that  be¬ 
lie  veth  on  Me  hath  eternal  life  ” ; 3  “  hath  eternal 

1  St.  John  x.  10,  Kal  irepLaaov  exucriv. 

2  St.  Jer.  iii.  3,  iav  p.r)  tls  yevvrjdri  dvcodev. 

3  e%et  £ut]i>  aiwvLov.  Not  only  is, the  present  tense  emphatic,  St. 
John  vi.  47,  but  alwviov  does  not  denote  duration,  whatever  it  may 
connote. 


270 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


life,”  it  is  a  present  possession  of  which  Christ  is 
speaking.  He  goes  on  to  say  further,  “  He  that 
lieareth  My  word  and  believeth  on  Him  that  sent 
Me  hath  eternal  life,1  and  shall  not  come  into  con¬ 
demnation,  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life.”  The 
statement  is  here  more  emphatic.  The  true  believer 
now  has  eternal  life,  and  already  has  passed  out  of 
the  deathful  condition  into  consciousness  of  life  eter¬ 
nal,  the  living,  eternal,  immanent  God.  So  it  is  a 
matter  not  of  the  future,  but  of  the  present,  because 
we  are  in  God  now.  The  Beatitudes  were,  every 
one,  given  in  the  present  tense.  It  is  an  error  to 
suppose  that  life  eternal  is  nothing  more  than  a 
continuation  of  this  life,  brought  about  either  by 
a  fiat  of  God,  or  by  a  bargain  with  Him,  or  because 
the  soul  is  essentially  indestructible  as  if  it  were  a 
piece  of  God.  God  is  eternal  because  He  is  perfectly 
holy.  Eternal  life  is  something  different  from  any 
continuation  of  life  beyond  death ;  it  is  a  transforma¬ 
tion  of  a  human  life  (which  has  consciously  sinned), 
so  that  it  cannot  cease  or  die.  Therein  is  fulfilled 
the  old  theological  dictum :  “  Man  is  made  able  not 
to  die,  in  order  that  he  might  become  not  able  to 
die.”  Eternal  life  therefore  is  the  quality  rather 
than  the  quantity  of  life,  the  quantity  being  a  result 
of  the  quality.  Again,  when  He  proclaimed2  Him¬ 
self  the  Bread  of  Life,  He  said  with  intensity,  “Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  believeth  on  Me  hath 

1  £wt)v  aUbvcov,  St.  John  v.  24.  2  St.  John  vi.  47  ff. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


271 


everlasting  life,”  etc. ;  and,  “  Whoso  eateth  My  flesh 
and  drinketh  My  blood  hath  eternal  life  ”  :  therefore, 
unless  we  now  have  eternal  life  before  the  grave,  we 
cannot  with  certainty  expect  to  have  it  afterward. 

“  No,  no  !  the  energy  of  life  may  be 
Kept  on  after  the  grave,  but  not  begun ; 

And  he  who  flagged  not  in  the  earthly  strife, 

From  strength  to  strength  advancing  —  only  he, 

His  soul  well-knit,  and  all  his  battles  won, 

Mounts,  and  that  hardly,  to  eternal  life.” 

The  sinless  infant  who  has  never  by  voluntary  sin 
and  the  knowledge  of  evil  been  separated  from  the 
consciousness  of  the  indwelling  God,  may  grow  in 
wisdom  and  holiness  throughout  the  eternal  years, 
though  his  little  span  of  life  in  this  world  gave  him 
no  room  for  effort ;  but  he  who  has  once  barred  out 
God-consciousness  must  of  himself  remove  that  bar. 
In  the  prologue  to  his  gospel,  St.  John  alludes  to 
these  sayings  of  our  Lord,  gathering  them  up  in  one 
great  vision  of  the  meaning  of  the  world  and  of  its 
life  in  relation  to  God.  For  he  writes,1  u  That  which 
was  made  was  life  in  Him,  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men,  and  to  as  many  as  receive  Him  He  gave  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God,  which  were  born  of  God.” 
This  eternal  life  physical  death  cannot  interrupt,  as 

1  St.  John  i.  3,  4,  12,  13,  o  yiyovev  iv  avruj  far/  eariv,  Kal  t)  far] 
Tjv  rb  0<Ss,  k.t. A.  Cf.  the  critical  note  of  Tiscliendorf  which  estab¬ 
lishes  this  reading. 


272 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Jesus  says,1  u  Whosoever  liveth  and  belie veth  in  Me 
shall  never  die,”  and  of  Himself,  in  a  sense  which  may 
be  explained  at  another  time,  He  said,2  “  This  is  the 
bread  which  came  down  from  Heaven  that  a  man 
may  eat  thereof  and  not  die  ” ;  u  He  that  eateth  of 
this  bread  shall  live  forever,”  or,  as  He  puts  the  same 
idea  in  other  words,  “If  a  man  keep  My  saying  he 
shall  never  see  death.”  3  To  this  bright  positive  of 
life  there  is  a  dark  negative,4  “Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man 
and  drink  His  blood  ye  have  no  life  in  you.”  There¬ 
fore  we  learn  that  in  the  present,  without  waiting 
for  a  future  world  beyond  death,  the  want  of  eternal 
life  signifies  that  the  soul  is  dead.5 

“  They  pass  me  by  like  shadows,  crowds  on  crowds, 

Dim  ghosts  of  men,  that  hover  to  and  fro, 

Hugging  their  bodies  round  them,  like  thin  shrouds 
Wherein  their  souls  were  buried  long  ago : 

They  trampled  on  their  youth,  and  faith,  and  love, 

They  cast  their  hope  of  human-kind  away, 

With  Heaven’s  clear  messages  they  madly  strove, 

And  conquered,  —  and  their  spirits  turned  to  clay  : 

Lo !  how  they  wander  round  the  world  their  grave, 
Whose  ever-gaping  maw  by  such  is  fed, 

Gibbering  at  living  men,  and  idly  rave, 

‘  We  only,  truly  live,  but  ye  are  dead.’ 

Alas  !  poor  fools ;  the  anointed  eye  may  trace 
A  dead  soul’s  epitaph  in  every  face  !  ” 

1  St.  John  xi.  26.  2  St.  John  vi.  50. 

3  St.  John  viii.  51.  4  St.  John  vi.  53. 

5  Cf.  Divina  Commedia ,  Inferno ,  xxxiii.  121-124. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


273 


Thus  Biblical  Theology  repeats  the  one  and  un¬ 
varying  lesson  touching  eternal  life  ;  it  is  life  actually 
and  ethically  in  the  “  everlasting  now,”  whether  here 
or  hereafter.  This  must  be  true,  if  indeed  in  God 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  Out  of  the 
moral  action  comes  the  intellectual  conviction,  and 
at  length  out  of  this  arises  the  spiritual  conscious¬ 
ness  of  divine  sonship  and  life  in  God,  which  is  life 
eternal.  Only  by  living  the  kind  of  life  God  lives 
does  man  know  God.  Only  by  this  knowledge  of 
God  does  he  know  his  divine  sonship ;  this  is  life 
eternal  to  know  Him,  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  He  hath  sent.  It  was  in  the  perfect¬ 
ness  of  this  consciousness  that  Jesus  said,  “  I  am  the 
life,”  “  I  am  the  Resurrection  and  the  life,”  “  he  that 
eateth  Me  the  same  shall  live  by  Me.”  1  Can  we 
determine  more  clearly  the  nature  of  this  eternal 
life?  Observe,  first,  that  in  the  New  Testament 
between  the  Greek  words  soos,  safe,  and  zoos,  alive, 
there  is  no  vast  difference  in  meaning,  and  in  form 
but  the  difference  of  a  not  very  different  letter. 
Radically  these  two  words  are  the  same.  In  the 
gospel  of  Christ  salvation  and  life  are  terms  so  nearly 
related  as  to  be  almost  interchangeable.  The  life 
that  is  saved  is  called  real  or  actual  life.2  Only  he 
that  hath  life  is  saved,  and  the  life  that  he  has  is 
eternal.  The  connection  between  salvation  and  life 

1  St.  John  xi.  25.  Cf.  1  John  iii.  15. 

2  1  Tim.  vi.  19,  77  6ptus  far].  Cf.  Olsliausen,  Opuscula,  187. 


274 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


is  that  Jesus  saving  the  world  from  sins  (not  their 
guilt  or  punishment  only)  rightens  (rectifies  or  justi¬ 
fies)  it,  and  life  becomes  eternal  in  the  measure  it  is 
lightened  or  rectified ;  it  cannot  die,  and  of  its  own 
inherent  nature  comes  to  a  Resurrection.  But  what, 
more  definitely  in  the  terms  of  Biblical  Theology, 
are  the  characteristics  of  life  eternal?  First,  it  is 
God-consciousness,1  an  abiding  recollection  of  the 
Immanent  Love.  Are  we  to  understand  that  this 
knowledge  of  God  is  an  intellectual  apprehension,  or 
a  speculative  idea,  a  “sensed  conversion,”  or  a  unio 
mystica  of  rapture  and  trance  ?  Is  it  an  Hegelian 
out-working  of  the  Immanent  Divine  Mind  into  con¬ 
sciousness  in  the  heterogeneous  world  and  in  the 
brains  of  men?  Is  it  this  the  gospel  teaches?  Not 
at  all !  The  gospel  knowledge  or  gnosis  is  the  iden¬ 
tity  of  creed  and  deed : 2  “  Hereby  we  do  know  that 
we  know  Him  if  we  keep  His  commandments.”  We 
may  approach  the  understanding  of  this  subject  of 
eternal  life  from  another  side.  In  St.  Matthew’s 
gospel 3  Jesus  makes  entry  into  the  kingdom  identi¬ 
cal  with  the  beginning  of  eternal  life  :  “  If  thou  wilt 
enter  into  life,  keep  the  commandments.”  This  He 
said  to  the  rich  young  man  who  had  asked,  “  What 
good  thing  shall  I  do  that  I  may  have  life  eternal?” 
At  the  end  our  Lord’s  comment  is,  that  a  rich  man 
shall  hardly  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  St. 

1  St.  John  xvii.  3. 

2  St.  John  vii.  17  ;  1  John  ii.  3.  Cf.  1  John  iii.  7.  3  xix.  16-24. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


275 


Luke  x.  25  the  old  misconception  of  eternal  life  as  a 
future  reward,  instead  of  a  present  condition,  is  cor¬ 
rected  by  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan,  wherein 
eternal  life  is  displayed  in  the  concrete  present.  In 
short,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  the  obverse,  of  which  eternal  life  is  the  reverse, 
upon  the  coin  of  human  life.  Again,  eternal  life  is 
like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  because  it  grows.  Such 
is  the  very  nature  of  life,  to  grow.  Eternal  life  grows 
forever.  Again,  God  is  the  living  God,  not  lifeless 
matter,  mechanical  force,  a  stream  of  tendency,  or  an 
abstract  first  cause.  He  is  living  because  He  is  infi¬ 
nitely  holy.  This  is  the  key  to  the  meaning  of  “  eternal 
life.”  They  who  are  unholy  are  alienated  from  the 
life  of  God,1  and  are  therefore  dead ;  they  have  no 
life  in  them.  Eternal  life,  says  St.  Peter,2  is  to  live 
according  to  God,  or  in  St.  Paul’s  phrase,3  to  be  alive 
unto  God.  This  life  begins  with  an  altered  mind 
towards  God.4 

The  second  Petrine  Epistle  5  contains  this  further 
development  of  the  idea  of  eternal  life,  that  those 
who  live  according  to  God,  conscious  of  their  divine 
son  ship,  are  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  that 
Christ  was  God  in  flesh,  and  therefore  to  live  accord- 

1  Eph.  iv.  18.  2  1  Pet.  iv.  6. 

3  Rom.  VI.  11.  4  fieravoLa  els  Qeov. 

5  delas  kolvwvoI  (pvcrews,  2  Pet.  i.  4.  Delitzsch,  Bibl.  Psychol.  172, 
404  ;  S.  Tom.  Aq.,  Sumraa ,  Ia.  1,  13,  9  ;  Ia.  2,  110,  3,  et  112,  1,  et 
113,  9,  et  114,  3,  etc. 


276 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


ing  to  Christ  is  to  live  according  to  God.  Eternal 
life,  then,  is  godly  life,  infinite  in  its  power  of  growth 
and  expansion :  it  is  the  life  of  love  which  God  is, 
even  the  life  of  unself  which  is  love,  the  boundless 
joy  of  giving  self,  as  it  is  written,  “He  that  findeth 
his  life  shall  lose  it ;  he  that  losetli  his  life  for  My 
sake  shall  find  it.”  Eternal  life  is,  therefore,  not  the 
addition  of  anything  to  the  soul,  any  more  than  it  is 
a  reward  laid  up  in  a  future  world,  but  it  is  a  quality 
in  the  character.  Eternal  life  is  a  manner  of  life 
unto  the  formation  of  character.  Each  man’s  char¬ 
acter  is  his  book  of  final  doom.  In  this  manner  of 
life,  justification  and  righteousness  are  met  together.1 
This  is  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Scripture  2  concern¬ 
ing  Eternal  Life. 

III.  Simple  and  clear  as  are  the  sayings  of  our 
Lord,  when  without  any  bias  or  prepossession  they 
are  received,  how  soon  the  theologians  of  the  Church, 
in  many  instances  and  bearings,  lost  the  compre¬ 
hension  of  their  profound  and  saving  sense  !  Recep¬ 
tiveness  was  limited  and  misshapen  by  precedent 
influences  and  contemporaneous  environment.  The 

1  If  we  translate  ducalucris  “justification,”  we  ought  to  translate 
SiKcuoav vrj  “justness”;  but  if  we  translate  SiKcuoavvri  “righteous¬ 
ness,”  then  we  should  translate  dacaLwo-is  “rectification,”  for  right¬ 
eousness  is  the  result  of  a  life  that  has  been  rectified  or  Tightened, 
and  such  a  life  is  eternal. 

2  Cf.  Le  Probleme  de  V Immortalite,  par  E.  Petavel-Oliff ;  Life 
in  Christ ,  by  Edward  White  ;  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte ;  Mar- 
tensen,  Dogmatics ,  Secs.  125-147. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


277 


old  folk-faith  persisted  in  the  mental  convictions  of 
the  converts  to  the  Christian  Church,  and  it  was 
impossible  that  that  faith  should  be  at  once  com¬ 
pletely  expelled.  Moreover,  that  clerical  theory  of 
the  Church  which  early  arose  favoured  external  and 
legal  methods  of  apprehending  the  teachings  of 
Jesus.  A  desire  for  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Church 
found,  “rod  and  candy  for  child-minded  men,” 
an  easier  way  of  making  church-members  than  the 
apparently  hopeless  task  of  changing  the  character 
of  the  candidates.  So  we  encounter  early  in  the 
history  of  Theology  a  survival  of  primitive  culture 
in  the  notion  that  life  after  death  has  its  value  and 
significance  in  being  a  retribution  or  compensation  for 
the  life  before  death.  The  thought  of  human  life,  as 
growth  and  progression  and  as  self-retributive,  does 
not  seem  to  have  emerged  clearly  into  Christian  con¬ 
sciousness.  The  common  notion  of  the  law  of  life 
was  that  of  sordid  compensation,  “  an  eye  for  an  eye, 
a  tooth  for  a  tooth.”  “  All  the  ancient  Fathers,”  says 
Haag,1  “agree  in  teaching  that  the  souls  immediately 
after  death  repair,  not  to  Heaven,  for  this  opinion 
was  held  to  be  a  gnostic  heresy,  but  to  Sheol  or 
Hades,  the  subterranean  world,  where  they  awaited 
the  last  judgment.”  Men  forgot  the  gospel  that 

1  Haag,  Hist,  des  Dogmes  Chretiens ,  II.  316.  Cf.  Hernias, 
Pastor,  Sim.  IX.  16  ;  Irenseus,  Her.  V.  32  ;  Justin  Martyr,  Tryph. 
80  ;  Tertullian,  Be  An.  lv.  ;  Be  Resurrect,  xliii.  ;  Lactantius,  In- 
stitut.  Biv.  VII.  21. 


278 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


future  life,  or  immortality,  is  the  corollary  or  result 
of  life  being  in  the  present  of  an  eternal  character. 
It  was  forgotten  also  that  Jesus  taught  that  the  future 
is  the  outcome  of  the  present,  not  a  gift  which  shall 
meet  us  beyond  the  door  of  death.  Godliness  is  great 
gain.  Men  forgot  that  to  be  born  again  was  simply 
to  begin  to  live  spiritually,  after  the  institution  and 
the  example  of  the  godly  life  of  Jesus,  historically 
manifested.  They  forgot  that  to  eat  His  flesh  and 
drink  His  blood  was,  as  He  explained,  to  keep  His 
commandments ;  they  forgot  that  this  Christ-life  was 
simply  the  life  of  pure  and  unselfish  love,  like  divine 
love,  not  passional ;  and  consequently  they  erected  a 
formal  and  external  theory  of  the  Sacraments,  analo¬ 
gous  to  the  Hebrew  system  of  sacrifice,  and  such 
sacraments  had  but  a  feeble  and  notional  hold  upon 
the  moral  life  of  man.  But  this  theory  exactly 
suited  the  imperialistic  idea  of  the  Church,  and  with¬ 
out  such  a  theory  the  hierarchical  system  would  have 
had  no  raison  d'etre.  Logical  as  was  that  theory,  it 
had,  in  any  age  from  Peter  Lombard  down,  one  fatal 
defect,  —  it  did  not  save  people  from  their  sins  pro¬ 
portionately  to  its  tremendous  assumptions.  Its  fun¬ 
damental  defect  was  a  lurking  scepticism  concerning 
the  value  of  human  life ;  in  fact,  we  might  say 
that  it  was  subtly  atheistical.  Hence  for  the  many 
Eternal  Life  —  that  is  to  say,  righteousness  —  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  impossible  in  this  world ;  at  any  rate,  it 
was  hardly  begun  before  the  grave.  The  effect  of 


279 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 

the  many  evils  of  the  system  was  that,  with  all  its 
intellectual  acuteness  and  forcefulness,  it  made  only 
a  few  unnatural  saints,  leaving  the  rest  of  humanity 
almost  untouched  by  influences  which  make  for  a 
righteous  life.  This  is  only  too  evident  to  any  one 
who  studies  into  the  details  of  the  European  history 
up  to  the  sixteenth  century  sufficiently  to  discover 
what  was  the  social  condition  of  the  masses.1 

Many  of  the  ante-Nicene  apologists  and  contro¬ 
versialists  were  so  accustomed  to  the  transcendental 
philosophies  of  their  day,  that  the  theosophy  rather 
than  the  ethics  of  Christianity  attracted  their  atten¬ 
tion.  The  tendency,  therefore,  was  to  offer  to  the 
cultivated  or  intellectual,  the  theoretical  gnosis,  and 
to  the  more  emotional,  ignorant  classes,  the  mechan¬ 
ical  or  sensational  gnosis.  At  any  rate,  of  this  they 
were  sure,  that  knowledge,  and  not  existence,  is 
eternal  life.  In  this  way  orthodoxy  or  speculative 
knowledge  was  offered  as  a  means  of  salvation  in  this 
world,  and  a  mysterious  knowledge  of  God,  called  a 
beatific  vision,  was  fancied  as  a  reward  in  the  other 
world,  and  substituted  for  eternal  life  in  this  world 
or  elsewhere.  This  survival  we  owe  to  the  shaman’s 
hysteric  trance  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  Neopla- 

1  Cf.  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals ;  La  Comedie  et  les 
Mceurs  en  France  au  Moyen  Age ,  L.  Petit  de  Julleville  ;  Lea,  Super¬ 
stition  and  Force;  Owen,  History  of  Crime  in  England ;  Pearson, 
History  of  England  during  the  Early  and  Middle  Ages  ;  the  works 
of  Rabelais,  and  the  poems  of  Francois  Villon. 


280 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


tonic  refinements  of  speculation  and  transcendental 
theosophy  on  the  other.  Between  folk-faitli  and  phi¬ 
losophy  the  word  of  Jesus  could  hardly  get  a  hearing. 
Conduct  was  put  in  place  of  character ;  that  is  to 
say  in  conventional  language,  good  works  were  ex¬ 
alted  above  faith.  God  judges  character,  yea,  it  is 
self-judged;  by  faith  are  we  justified  or  made  just. 
Let  us  never  in  our  teaching  sunder  justification 
and  righteousness,  because  essentially  they  are  one. 
The  fault  of  the  theologians  of  the  early  Church, 
if  we  may  presume  to  point  it  out,  is  that  they 
started  the  evolution  of  a  dogma  about  salvation, 
which  has  always  required  an  elaborate  explanation 
to  establish  for  it  any  bearing  upon  human  life  and 
character.  Therefore  the  dogma  has  not  been  saving. 
It  has  held  within  it  too  little  of  the  power  of  the 
personal  Christ.  The  subject  of  Jesus’  teaching  was 
implicitly  and  explicitly  life ,  its  value,  significance, 
and  purpose.  A  precise  point  of  His  teaching  was 
consequently  this,  that  unless  we  have  eternal  life 
now,  unless  we  are  born  again  now,  into  a  higher  plane 
of  existence,  unless  now  we  enter  into  Christ’s  life, 
will,  character,  existence,  as  it  was  on  earth,  there  can 
be  no  ground  to  hope  for  an  eternal  life  hereafter. 
u  For  life  does  not  arise  from  us,  nor  from  our  own 
nature ;  but  it  is  bestowed  according  to  the  grace  of 
God.  And  therefore  he  who  shall  preserve  the  life 
bestowed  upon  him,  and  give  thanks  to  Him  Who 
imparted  it,  shall  receive  also  length  of  days  forever 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


281 


and  ever.  But  he  who  shall  reject  it  and  prove  him¬ 
self  ungrateful  to  his  Maker,  inasmuch  as  he  has 
been  created,  and  has  not  recognised  Him  Who 
bestowed,  deprives  himself  of  continuance  forever 
and  ever.”1  There  is  no  longer  in  Christendom 
baptism  for  the  dead,  nor  forensic  imputation  of 
the  qualities  of  some  other  soul.  Impossible  !  Such 
notions  belong  to  the  religious  masked  dances  and 
dramatic  representations  of  a  poltroon  savagery.  No 
requiem  mass,  no  sanctification  in  the  article  of 
death,  no  solifidian  confidence,  no  probation  in  the 
underworld,  is  able  to  be  given  in  exchange  for 
eternal  life.  It  is  a  question  of  the  now,  as  pre¬ 
destination  is  a  matter  of  the  now,  not  of  ages  past ; 
for  our  God  is  eternal,  and  eternity  is  the  ever-pres¬ 
ent  now.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  conditions  of  sal¬ 
vation  are  in  some  sense  not  the  least  altered  by  the 
restatement  of  doctrine  which  I  have  made.  God  for¬ 
bid  that  any  one  should  think  to  alter  and  to  amend 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  !  But  a  variant  and  uncertain 
theology,  defectively  receptive  of  those  teachings,  we 
may  well  examine.  True,  eternal  life  is  still  ever¬ 
lasting  life,  the  moment  we  import  into  it  the  thought 
of  duration,  but  according  to  the  readjustment  or 
statement  in  this  lecture,  is  not  the  whole  idea,  the 
entire  meaning,  changed  ?  From  the  standing-point 
of  this  idea  of  eternal  life,  formal  devices  of  theology 
and  religion  melt  each  as  a  cloud.  Life  gains  vastly 

1  Irenteus,  Against  Heresies,  II.  34, 3. 


282 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


in  ethical  and  spiritual  import.  Indeed,  our  own 
lives,  by  this  truth,  become  so  exalted  that  their 
preciousness  and  worth  make  all  other  considerations 
paltry,  and  most  of  all  the  supposition  of  anything 
like  a  commercial  transaction  with  Him  Who  is  the 
Infinite  Immanent  One,  abiding  in  Eternity,  Who 
containeth  all  within  Him.  From  this  concept  of 
life  eternal,  as  a  present  quality  and  fact,  what  peace 
and  tranquillity  come  unto  us !  The  petty  cares  of 
our  environment  are  nothing  to  the  eternity  of  life. 
“  Our  noisy  years  seem  moments  in  the  being  of  an 
eternal  silence.”  As  Bohmen  uttered  from  intuition, 
“  When  [for  any  soul]  time  is  as  eternity,  and  eter¬ 
nity  as  time,  then  ceases  all  strife.” 

The  old  theory  of  rewards  and  punishments  ab  extra 
has  served  a  use  in  the  world.  A  theological  police 
system,  it  was  suited  for  a  stage  of  imperfect  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  religious  consciousness.  This  theory 
fed  the  poetry,  art,  and  drama  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
elevated  the  papal  chair,  and  sent  forth  the  crusaders. 
In  one  of  the  chronicles  of  that  time  I  once  read  a 
story  which  shows  how  evident  to  the  paynim  was  the 
motive  of  the  crusades.  An  old  Moslem  crone  was 
seen  going  through  the  Christian  camp  bearing  in  one 
hand  a  flask  of  water,  and  in  the  other  a  pot  of  fire. 
When  asked  her  purpose,  she  answered,  “  I  am 
going  to  burn  up  the  heaven  of  the  Christian  and 
to  drown  out  his  hell,  so  that  these  knights  will 
return  home  from  molesting  us.”  Powerful  as  has 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


been  this  doctrine  in  the  past,  useful  as  the  turn  it 
has  served,  it  has  nevertheless  been  an  untrue  state¬ 
ment  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  Besides,  its  day 
is  fast  passing  away,  the  temper  of  the  world  is 
changed.  This  doctrine  has  no  logical  place  in 
scientific  or  rational  theology.  It  is  not  an  article 
of  the  Creed.  It  is  not  a  part  of  the  reasonable, 
religious  and  holy  hope  of  the  Christian.  No  longer 
do  men  clutch  the  pew  in  front  of  them  to  keep 
from  falling  down  into  a  burning  hell,  which  yawns 
just  before  their  terrified  imaginations,  as  some  Jona¬ 
than  Edwards  thunders  out  the  wrath  of  God.  The 
wrath  principle  certainly  does  exist,  but  it  exists  in 
us,  as  the  distorted  medium  through  which  we  view 
eternal  and  changeless  love.  For  wrath  and  fear 
and  hope  of  gain  are  not  the  motives  of  that  life 
eternal  which  Jesus  brought  to  light.  Yet  for  cen¬ 
turies  they  have  been  stinging  thongs  in  the  whip 
which  a  mistaken  theology  wielded  to  keep  the  child- 
men  good.  Even  the  heathen  Marcus  Aurelius  had 
a  nobler  and  worthier  idea  of  life’s  meaning.  “For 
what  more  dost  thou  want,”  said  the  imperial 
moralist,  “  when  thou  hast  done  man  a  service ;  art 
thou  not  content  that  thou  hast  done  something  con¬ 
formable  to  thy  nature,  and  dost  thou  seek  to  be 
paid  for  it?  Just  as  if  the  eye  demanded  a  recom¬ 
pense  for  seeing  or  the  feet  for  walking.  For  as 
these  members  are  formed  for  a  particular  purpose, 
and  by  working  according  to  their  several  constitu- 


284 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


tions  obtain  what  is  their  own,  so  also  as  man  is 
formed  by  nature  to  acts  of  benevolence,  when  he 
has  done  anything  benevolent  or  in  any  other  way 
conducive  to  common  interest,  he  has  acted  conform¬ 
ably  to  his  constitution,  and  he  gets  what  is  his 
own.”1  Reward  in  the  sense  of  possession,  future  or 
present,  is  not  a  part  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  His 
teaching  of  reward  is  that  it  is  in  being  something. 
Although  the  inexorable  logic  of  the  expanding  con¬ 
sciousness  of  God  as  Love  and  Life,  pulsing  through¬ 
out  the  worlds  and  the  spirits  of  men,  has  cast  off, 
or  is  casting  off,  rude  and  mechanical  notions  of  the 
vindictiveness  or  retribution  from  God,  and  of  the 
future  life  as  something  pieced  on  to  this,  not  devel¬ 
oped  out  of  it;  nevertheless  the  moral  sanction 
remains  clear  and  unweakened.  The  soul  that  sin- 
netli  shall  die.  The  imagery  of  Christ’s  teaching 
has  this  true  meaning,  truer  than  a  conventional 
theology  nursed  in  folk-faith  has  been  wont  to  give  ; 
a  significance,  which  no  imputation  theory,  no  in¬ 
vented  vicariousness  of  guilt  and  penalty,  and  no 
materialised  grace  can  nullify.  God  destroys  the 
soul  by  creating  conditions  of  existence,  which,  if 
not  fulfilled,  result  in  destruction,  as  surelv  as  if  He 
did  it  by  a  sudden  and  visible  thunderbolt  of  annihi¬ 
lation.2  Only,  in  God’s  sovereignty  there  is  nothing 

1  Meditations,  IX.  42. 

2  In  the  Apocalypse  fay  is  regularly  contrasted  with  the  second 
death  ;  also,  read  Drummond,  Natural  Laic  in  the  Spiritual  World. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


285 


arbitrary,  there  are  no  legal  fictions  and  equivoca¬ 
tions,  no  theological  evasions,  whereby  that  which 
is  unholy  shall  be  counted  as  though  it  were  holy, 
and  enter  into  joy  hereafter.  Because  life  is  growth 
eternal,  life  is  growth  and  progress  in  this  world 
and  after  it. 

“  Come  up  hither.  From  this  wave-washed  mound 
Unto  the  furthest  flood-brim  look  with  me ; 

Then  reach  on  with  thy  thought  till  it  be  drowned, 

Miles  and  miles  distant  though  the  last  line  be, 

And  though  thy  soul  sail  leagues  and  leagues  beyond, 

Still,  leagues  beyond  these  leagues  there  is  more  sea.” 

The  scope  for  progress  is  infinite  for  that  life  which 
is  become  eternal.  Consequently,  the  development 
of  individual  spirits  will  be  various ;  there  are  differ¬ 
ences  of  progress.  Heaven  is  no  dead  level  of  pious 
vacuities,  nor  is  it  a  picturesque  arrangement,  as  we 
see  in  Dante  Rossetti’s  pictures  of  — 

“  All  the  saints  above, 

In  solemn  troops  and  sweet  societies, 

That  sing,  and  singing  in  their  glory  move.” 

To  the  children  of  the  twentieth  century  this 
fancy,  I  expect,  will  not  be  attractive,  or,  what  is  of 
far  more  serious  import,  it  will  not  be  the  object  of  a 
reasonable,  religious,  and  holy  hope.  Even  a  child  of 
our  own  day,  a  fin  de  siecle  spirit,  voices  the  protest 
of  thousands  against  the  unrealities  of  popular  relig¬ 
ious  teaching. 


28(3 


SURVIVALS  IX  CHRISTIANITY. 


“  Behold,”  says  Reynand,  “  on  the  steps  of  this 
strange  heaven  the  elect,  seated  side  by  side,  all  in 
rank  assigned  to  them  according  to  their  short  pil¬ 
grimage  on  earth,  absorbed  without  distraction  in  the 
rigidity  of  their  contemplation,  and  clothed  forever  in 
their  terrestrial  bodies,  in  which  they  were  seized  by 
death,  as  by  the  fatal  seal  of  their  eternal  mutability. 
What  are  these  phantoms  doing  ?  Are  they  living  or 
dead?  Ah  !  Christ,  how  this  Paradise  scares  me.  I 
prefer  my  life  with  its  lights  and  shadows,  its  tribula¬ 
tions  and  pains,  to  that  blank  immortality,  with  its 
sanctimonious  peace.”  Now,  allowing  for  a  little 
of  that  overcolouring  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
French  school,  does  not  his  picture  represent  correctly 
enough  the  ordinary  and  popular  pulpit  teaching? 
Does  he  not  utter  the  protest  of  intelligent  people  ? 
However,  if  any  man  does  in  these  days  what  is  right, 
solely  in  order  to  gain  reward  of  such  a  heaven,  or 
escape  a  burning  hell,  let  that  man  well  know  that 
he  has  not  Christ’s  life  in  him.  Let  him  rest 
assured  that  he  seeks  his  life  only  to  lose  it,  for  he 
simply  and  certainty  exalts  his  own  self-seeking  to 
the  throne  of  the  Eternal.  Therefore  that  man,  if  he 
be  consistent,  will  go  on  and  ascribe  to  the  eternally 
living  God,  Who  is  ineffable  love  or  unself,  the 
motive  of  creating  the  world  and  men  for  His  own 
glory,  and  good  pleasure,  “  and  for  the  praise  of 
His  glorious  justice  to  ordain  them  to  dishonour 
and  wrath.”  No,  a  thousand  times  no,  to  such  phra- 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


287 


seology,  though  it  be  sanctified  by  generations  of 
teaching,  and  by  the  blood  of  the  covenanters.  The 
“place  of  the  skull”  is  not  the  altar  of  wrath;  the 
death  on  Calvary  was  the  supreme  exhibition  of  eter¬ 
nal  love ;  for,  I  repeat  it,  and  with  emphasis,  the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  the  Cross  is  essential  to  the  purpose  of  Jesus, 
essential  to  His  divine  human  character,  essential, 
not  accidental ;  for  it  was,  is,  and  ever  shall  be,  the 
outflowering,  the  culmination,  in  its  utterance  from 
eternity  into  the  time-sphere,  of  the  operation  of 
Divine  Love,  Who  is  the  heart  of  all,  and  beareth 
all  in  His  heart.  Thus  is  infinity  focussed  out  of 
eternity  into  time.  Having  loved  His  own  which 
were  in  the  world,  He  loved  them  unto  the  consumma¬ 
tion  of  love.1  Hence  the  Cross  is  the  essence  of 
Christianity,  as  a  manifestation  of  God  to  man.  This 
is  the  purpose  of  the  Incarnation.  This  is  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  very  nature  of  life  eternal ;  this  life  is 
in  His  Son,  the  actualisation  in  conduct  and  character 
of  the  principle  of  unself.  Again,  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  life  means  correspondence  and  conforma¬ 
tion  to  the  environment.  If  this  be  true,  then  only 
that  life  which  is  conformed  to  such  desires,  thoughts, 
volitions,  and  deeds,  as  are  from  their  nature  inde¬ 
structible,  will,  when  destructible  things  come  to  an 
end,  have  any  environment.  Therefore,  from  this 
point  of  view,  the  standing-point  of  modern  science,2 

1  See  p.  24,  above. 

2  Recent  studies  in  Biology  and  in  Embryology  furnish  strong 
analogies  to  the  Biblical  Theology,  of  the  nature  and  conditions  of 


288 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


we  apprehend  again  the  profound  truth  and  reality 
of  Jesus  Christ’s  doctrine  of  life  eternal. 

By  Philosophy,  also,  has  this  teaching  been  tested. 
Spinoza  thought  that  a  man  would  become  immortal 
only  as  the  elements  of  deathlessness  entered  into  his 
character;  so,  when  the  destructible  things  pass  out 
of  existence,  the  man  would  be  left  with  only  inde¬ 
structible  elements  of  character,  “  saved  so  as  by  fire.” 
If  nothing  eternal  or  imperishable  have  entered  into 
the  man,  lie  will  simply  cease  to  exist,  because  in  him 
there  is  nothing  which  will  endure.  Thus,  in  the 
meaning  of  the  philosopher,  as  in  that  of  the  gospel, 
true  life,  and  everlasting  life,  is  eternal  life,  because 
it  is  that  life  which  cannot  be  extinguished,  to  which 
death  is  only  a  phase,  a  transition,  and  which,  being 
deathless  and  spiritual,  re-arises  from  the  dead,  im¬ 
mortal,  and  a  spiritual  body. 

IV.  Let  us,  therefore,  teach  our  people  the  real 
eternal  life ;  for  in  this  way  only  shall  we  help  to 
build  up  strong  and  Christ-like  characters.  In  this 
way  only  can  we  show  life  to  be  wholly  solemn  and 
full  of  dignity.  Let  us  bid  men  cultivate  a  con¬ 
stantly  abiding  sense  that  life  must  be  eternal  now, 
if  ever.  In  this  way,  also,  the  worth  and  nobility  of 
human  destiny  come  to  us  as  a  mighty  inspiration. 
It  is  a  consolation  in  those  hours  of  depression  when 

eternal  life;  Drummond,  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World; 
Caesar  Malan,  La  Generation  Spirituelle  ;  Bevue  de  la  Tlieologie  et 
de  la  Philosophies  Mai,  1879. 


ETERNAL  LIFE. 


289 


the  sense  of  failure  weighs  heavily  upon  the  soul, 
and  the  doubt  whispers  that  life  for  us  holds  no 
further  possibilities.  Then  comes  borne  in  upon  the 
soul  the  consciousness  of  that  Love  Hidden,  yet  man¬ 
ifest,  in  all  the  ways  and  works  of  our  past.  And 
the  soul  responds  to  the  message  which  comes  out 
from  eternity,  when  the  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say 
“  Come,  whosoever  will  let  him  drink  of  the  water  of 
life  freely.” 

“  Therefore  to  whom  turn  I  but  to  Thee,  ineffable  Name? 

Builder  and  Maker,  Thou,  of  houses  not  made  with  hands  ! 

What,  have  fear  of  change  from  Thee  Who  art  ever  the  same? 

Doubt  that  Thy  power  can  fill  the  heart  that  Thy  power 
expands  ? 

There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good !  What  was,  shall  live  as 
before  ; 

The  evil  is  null,  is  nought,  is  silence  implying  sound  : 

What  was  good  shall  be  good,  with,  for  evil,  so  much  good 
more  ; 

On  earth  the  broken  arcs,  in  Heaven  a  perfect  round.” 

Life  eternal  inheres  not  in  accomplishment,  but  in 
effort ;  not  in  material  success,  but  in  unselfish  work  ; 
not  in  conduct,  but  in  character.  It  is  godly  life, 
the  life  of  God,  and  consequently  immortal. 

“  Now  unto  the  King  eternal,  immortal,  invisible, 
the  only  wise  God,  be  honour  and  glory  forever  and 
ever.  Amen.” 


I 


i 


We  began  at  the  head  of  the  stream  of  divine  Providence,  and 
have  followed  and  traced  it  through  its  various  windings  and  turn¬ 
ings,  till  we  are  come  to  the  end  of  it  and  see  where  it  issues.  As 
it  began  in  God,  so  it  ends  in  God.  God  is  the  infinite  Ocean  into 
which  it  empties  itself. 

Pres.  Jonathan  Edwards,  History  of  the  Work  of  Bedemp- 
tion ,  Works,  edition  of  1843,  Yol.  I.  p.  510. 


Donee  me  Dominus  Deum  Incarnationis  potentia  faciat. 

St.  Nilus. 

My  faith  in  God  rests  on  my  faith  in  Christ  as  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh— not  as  God  and  man,  but  as  God  in  man.  It  is  true 
that  the  argument  for  a  Creator  from  the  creation  is  by  modern 
sciences  modified  only  to  be  strengthened.  The  doctrine  of  a  great 
first  cause  gives  place  to  the  doctrine  of  an  eternal  and  perpetual 
cause  ;  the  carpenter  conception  of  creation  to  the  doctrine  of  a  divine 
immanence  ;  the  Latin  notion  of  an  anthropomorphic  Jupiter, 
renamed  Jehovah,  made  to  dwell  in  some  bright,  particular  star 
and  holding  telephonic  communication  with  the  spheres  by  means 
of  invisible  wires  which  sometimes  fail  to  work,  dies,  and  the  old 
Hebrew  conception  of  a  Divinity  which  inliabitetli  Eternity,  and 
yet  dwells  in  the  heart  of  the  contrite  and  the  humble,  takes  its 
place.  But  the  theological  argument  is  strengthened,  not  weak¬ 
ened,  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution  ;  creation  is  more,  not  less, 
creation  because  it  is  the  thought,  not  the  mere  handiwork,  of 
God.  It  is  not  possible  even  to  state  the  doctrine  of  an  atheist 
creation  without  using  the  language  of  theism  in  the  statement, 
but  the  heart  finds  no  refuge  in  an  infinite  or  an  eternal  energy 
from  which  all  things  proceed.  That  refuge  is  found  only  in  the 
faith  that  God  has  entered  a  human  life,  taken  the  helm,  ruled 
heart  and  hand  and  tongue,  written  in  terms  of  human  experience 


290 


the  biography  of  Gocl  in  History,  revealed  in  the  teaching  of  Christ 
the  truth  of  God,  in  the  life  of  Christ  the  righteousness  of  God, 
in  the  Passion  of  Christ  the  suffering  of  God.  That  God  is  in 
nature,  filling  it  with  Himself  as  the  spirit  fills  the  body  with  its 
omnipresence,  so  that  all  natural  forces  are  but  the  expressions  of 
the  divine  will,  and  all  natural  laws  but  the  habits  of  divine  action, 

—  this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood.  That  God  was  in  Christ ; 
so  that  Jesus  Christ  was  seen,  in  the  three  short  years  of  His  public 
life,  to  be  what  God  is  in  His  eternal  administration  of  the  Universe, 

—  this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Sonsliip.  That  God  is  in  human 
experience,  guiding,  illuminating,  inspiring,  making  all  willing  souls 
Sons  of  God  and  joint  heirs  of  Jesus  Christ, — this  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  Installation  Address. 
291 


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Iudaeorum,  Graecorum,  Romanorum,  etc.  Rodolpho  Hos- 
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Ceremonies  et  Coutumes  Religieuses  de  Tons  les  Peuples  du 
Monde.  Picart.  12  tomes  in  six  volumes,  folio.  Paris,  L. 
Prudhomme,  1807. 

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The  Women  of  Turkey  and  their  Folk-Lore,  by  Lucy  M.  <J. 
Garnett.  Yol.  1.  The  Christian  Women.  8vo.  New  York, 
Charles  Scribner’s  Sons,  1890. 

Annual  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology.  5  vols.  8vo. 
Washington,  1882-1889. 

Ethnology  in  Folk-Lore,  by  George  Laurence  Gomme,  F.S.A. 
New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1892. 

295 


296 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


Die  Deutsche  Volkssage,  von  Dr.  Otto  Henne-am  Rhyn.  8vo, 
Leipzig,  Kruger,  1874. 

Fetichism,  by  Fritz  Scliultze.  Humboldt  Library,  New  York. 

Die  Deutsche  Gotterlehre,  Dr.  Paul  Herrmanowski.  Berlin, 
Nicolai,  1891. 

The  Supernatural,  Its  Origin,  Nature,  and  Evolution,  by  John 
H.  King.  2  vols.  8vo.  London  and  New  York,  Williams  & 
Norgate,  1892. 

Vedische  Mythologie,  von  Alfred  Hillebrandt.  Ier  Band. 
Breslau,  Koebner,  1891. 

Records  of  the  Past,  edited  by  A.  H.  Sayce.  2  Series.  Bagster, 
London. 

Kaffir  Folk-Lore,  by  G.  M.  Theal.  London,  Swan  Sonnenschein, 
1886. 

Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale,  The  Poetry  of  the  Old  Northern 
Tongue  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Thirteenth  Century, 
by  Vigfusson  &  Powell.  2  vols.  Oxford  and  New  York, 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  1883. 

Prologomena  to  the  History  of  Israel,  by  Julius  Wellliausen. 
Translated.  Edinburgh,  Adam  &  Charles  Black,  n.d. 

Religion  of  the  Semites.  First  Series.  The  Fundamental  Insti¬ 
tutions,  by  W.  Robertson  Smith.  New  York,  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  1889. 

Buddhism  in  its  connection  with  Brahminism  and  Hinduism 
and  its  contrast  with  Christianity,  by  Sir  Monier  Monier- 
Williams.  New  York,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1889. 

Brahminism  and  Hinduism,  or  Religious  Thought  and  Life  in 
India,  by  Sir  Monier  Monier-Williams.  New  York,  Mac¬ 
millan  &  Co.,  1891. 

Studies  of  the  Gods  in  Greece  at  Certain  Sanctuaries  Recently 
Excavated,  by  Louis  Dyer.  New  York,  Macmillan  &  Co., 
1891. 

The  Apocryphal  Gospels,  translated  by  B.  Harris  Cowper, 
London,  F.  Norgate,  1881. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


297 


The  Book  of  Enoch,  translated  from  the  Ethiopic  by  Rev.  G.  IT. 

Schodde.  Andover,  W.  F.  Draper,  1882. 

Die  Gottesbegriffe  des  Talmud  und  Zohar,  by  Dr.  Aron  Hahn. 
Leipzig,  Kaufmann,  n.d. 

The  Talmud,  Selections,  by  H.  Polano.  Philadelphia,  E.  L. 
Stuart,  n.d. 

Treasures  of  the  Talmud,  by  P.  J.  Hershon.  8vo.  London, 
Nisbet  &  Co.,  1882. 

The  Kabbalah  Unveiled,  translated  from  the  Kabbala  Denudata 
of  Knorr  Von  Rosenroth  by  S.  L.  MacGregor  Mathers.  8vo. 
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Bibliotheque  Orientate.  D’Herbelot.  Folio.  Msestricht, 
MDCCLXXVI. 

Le  Juif  Talmudiste,  par  M.  L’Abbe  Rohling.  Bruxelles,  Vro- 
mant  et  Cie.  n.d. 

La  Kabbale  ou  la  Philosophie  Religeuse  des  Hebreux,  par 
Adolphe  Franck.  Svo.  Paris,  Hachette,  1889. 

Etudes  Orientales,  par  Adolphe  Franck.  8vo.  Paris,  Levy, 
1861. 

Jesus  of  Xazara,  by  Dr.  Theodor  Keim.  Translated.  6  vols. 
Williams  &  Xorgate,  1876. 

Vie  De  Jesus,  par  Ernest  Renan.  Paris,  Levy,  1863. 

Xovum  Testamentum  Greece,  Editio  Octava  Critica  Major. 

2  vols.  Const.  Tischendorf,  Lipsiee. 

The  Creeds  of  Christendom,  by  Philip  Schaff,  D.D.  3  vols. 
New  York,  1874. 

A  Comparative  View  of  the  Doctrines  and  Confessions  of 
Christendom,  by  G.  B.  Winer.  Translated  by  W.  B.  Pope. 
Edinburgh,  T.  T.  Clark,  1881. 

Authoritative  Christianity,  The  Decisions  of  the  Six  Ecumeni¬ 
cal  Councils,  by  James  Chrystal,  Translator,  Editor,  and 
Publisher.  1st  vol.  Svo.  Jersey  City,  1891. 

The  Apostolic  Fathers,  Revised  Texts,  by  the  late  J.  B.  Light- 
foot,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Durham.  Svo. 
London,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1891. 


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The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers.  Translations  of  the  Writings  of  the 
Fathers  down  to  a.d.  325,  by  Rev.  Alex.  Roberts,  D.D.,  and 
James  Donaldson,  LL.D.  Revised  by  Bishop  A.  C.  Coxe, 
D.D.  8  vols.  8vo.  Buffalo,  Christian  Literature  Publishing 
Company,  1886-1888. 

History  of  Christian  Doctrines,  by  Dr.  K.  R.  Hagenbach. 
Translated.  3  vols.  8vo.  Edinburgh,  Clark,  1883. 

Manuel  de  l’Histoire  des  Dogmes  Chretiens,  par  Henri  Klee. 
Traduit  de  l’Allemand,  par  l’Abbe  Mafire.  2  tomes.  Paris, 
Lecoffre  et  Cie,  1848. 

Lehrbuch  der  Dogmengeschichte,  von  Adolf  Harnack.  3  Band. 
Freiburg,  Mohr,  1888-1890. 

Histoire  des  Dogmes  Chretiens,  par  E.  Haag.  Paris,  1892. 

A  Critical  History  of  the  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification 
and  Reconciliation,  by  Albrecht  Ritschl.  Translated  by 
J.  S.  Black.  8vo.  Edinburgh,  1872. 

The  Philosophy  of  History,  by  G.  W.  F.  Hegel.  Translated 
by  Bohn.  New  York,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1884. 

Masks,  Heads,  and  Faces,  by  Ellen  R.  Emerson.  Boston,  1891. 

Die  Christliche  Mystik  nach  ihrem  geschichtlichen  Entwick- 
elungsgange  im  Mittel  und  in  der  Neuern  Zeit  dargestellt, 
von  Dr.  Ludwig  Noack.  Konigsberg,  Gebriider  Borntrager, 
1853. 

A  Treatise  of  Dogmatic  Theology,  by  Rev.  Samuel  Buel,  S.T.D. 
2  vol.  Svo.  New  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1890. 

Christian  Dogmatics  :  A  Compendium  of  the  Doctrines  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  by  Dr.  H.  Martensen.  Edinburgh,  Clark,  1860. 

Systematic  Divinity,  by  Charles  Hodge,  D.D.  3  vol.  Svo.  New 
York,  Harpers. 

S.  Thomas  Aquinas’  Summa  Theologica.  8  vols.  Svo.  New 
York,  Benziger  Bros.,  1875. 

Le  Christ  de  la  Tradition,  par  Mgr.  Landriot,  Eveque  de  La 
Rochelle  et  Saintes.  2  tomes.  Paris,  Victor  Palme,  1867. 

Works  of  Mr.  Richard  Hooker  in  Eight  Books  of  the  Laws  of 
the  Ecclesiastical  Polity.  1  vol.  fol.  London,  MDCCV. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


299 


A  Course  of  Sermons  for  All  the  Sundays  of  the  Year,  by 
Jeremy  Taylor,  D.D.  2  vols.  fol.  London,  1655. 

Works  of  William  Beveridge,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph. 
6  vols.  Oxford,  1817. 

The  Works  of  Joseph  Butler,  D.C.L.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Durham. 

2  vols.  Oxford,  MDCCCXXVI. 

The  Works  of  Thomas  Seeker,  LL.D.,  Archbishop  of  Canter¬ 
bury.  6  vols.  1811. 

Bishop  Overall’s  Convocation  Book,  MDCVI.  London,  1690. 
The  Polity  of  the  Christian  Church,  by  A.  A.  Pelliccia.  Trans¬ 
lated.  London,  Masters,  1883. 

A  History  of  Philosophy,  by  Johann  Eduard  Erdmann.  3  vols. 

London  and  Xew  York,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1890. 

Handbook  of  the  History  of  Philosophy,  by  Dr.  Albert  Schweg- 
ler.  Edinburgh,  1874. 

Ancient  Law,  its  Connection  with  the  Early  History  of  Society 
and  its  Relation  to  Modern  Ideas,  by  Henry  Sumner  Maine. 
Xew  York,  Henry  Holt,  1875. 

Christian  Archaeology,  by  C.  W.  Bennett,  D.D.  Xew  York 
and  Cincinnati,  1888. 

History  of  Mediaeval  Art,  by  Dr.  Franz  von  Reber.  Trans¬ 
lated.  Xew  lrork,  Harpers,  1887. 

Didron,  Christian  Iconography.  2  vols.  London,  Bohn,  1851, 
1886. 

History  of  the  Christian  Church,  by  W.  Moeller.  Translated. 

London  and  Xew  York,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1892. 
Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  Xew  Testament,  by  Rev.  G.  A. 

Jacobs,  D.D.  Xew  York,  Thomas  Whittaker,  1878. 

The  Destiny  of  Man  Viewed  in  the  Light  of  His  Origin,  by 
John  Fiske.  Boston,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1889. 

A  System  of  Biblical  Psychology,  by  Franz  Delitzcli,  D.D. 

Translated  by  Rev.  R.  E.  Wallis.  Edinburgh,  Clark,  1867. 
Biblical  Theology  of  the  Xew  Testament,  by  Dr.  Bernard 
Weiss.  Translated.  2  vols.  8vo.  Edinburgh,  Clark,  1888. 


800 


SURVIVALS  IN  CHRISTIANITY. 


The  Constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  containing  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  the  Catechisms,  and  the  Directory  for 
the  Worship  of  God. 

Justini,  Philosophi  et  Martyris,  Opera.  Item  Athenagorse 
Atheniensis,  Theophili  Antiocheni,  Tatiani  Assyrii,  et  Her- 
mise,  etc.  Colonise,  MDLCLXXXVI. 

S.  Ilippolyti,  Refutationis  Omnium  Hseresium  Libri  X.  Duncker 
et  Scheneidewin.  8vo.  Gottingse,  1859. 

Firmiani  Lactantii  Opera,  Fritzsche.  12mo.  Leipzig,  Tauch- 
nitz,  1842. 

Arnobii  adversus  Nationes  Libri,  VII,  Oehler.  Leipzig,  Tauch- 
nitz,  1846. 

M.  Minucii  Felicis  Octavius.  Firmicus  Maternus,  Paulinus, 
Commodianus.  Leipzig,  Tauchnitz,  1847. 

Reliquke  Sacne,  by  M.  J.  Routh,  S.T.P.  5  vols.  Oxoni,  1846. 

Le  Probleme  de  him  mortality,  par  E.  Patavel-Olliff.  2  tomes. 
Paris,  Fischbacher,  1892. 

Essays  in  Biblical  Greek,  by  Edwin  Hatch,  M.A.,  D.D.  Oxford 
and  New  York,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1889. 

La  Divina  Commedia,  di  Dante  Allighieri.  Witte.  Berlin,  1862. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abbott’s,  Lyman,  Statement  of  the 
Theology  of  Divine  Imma¬ 
nence,  290. 

Abelard,  his  criticism  of  the  An- 
selmic  theory,  175. 

Absolution.  See  Forgiveness. 

After  death,  in  primitive  culture, 
227,  277. 

in  modern  common  opinion,  237. 

Agnosticism,  evolution  of,  43. 

Ainu  theory  of  ghost-world,  257. 

Albigensi'ans,  69,  72,  110. 

Altars,  early,  15. 
why  of  stone,  17. 
why  relics  deposited  in,  232. 

Amiel,  H.  F.,  on  the  distinctive 
element  of  Christianity,  3. 
adjustment  of  religious  teach¬ 
ing,  50,  73. 

Ancestor  worship,  38,  258. 

Ancient  temple,  how  different  from 
a  Christian  church,  83. 

Andrews,  Bp.,  on  Episcopal  gov¬ 
ernment  of  Church,  124. 

Animism,  35,  71. 

survival  of,  in  Pantheism,  43. 

Anselm,  St.,  on  Atonement,  174. 

Antiquity,  value  of  appeal  to, 

2. 

Apocalypses,  pre-Christian,  8,  n.  1. 

303 


Apocalypses,  influence  of,  on  Chris¬ 
tian  theology,  234. 

Apocalyptic  writings,  their  influ¬ 
ence  on  common  notion  of 
heaven,  260. 

Apostolic  Church,  117. 

Apostolic  development  of  doctrine 
of  the  Resurrection,  204-208. 

Apostolic  Succession,  118.  See  Con¬ 
tinuity,  Tactual,  and  Episco¬ 
pacy. 

its  sign,  126. 

relation  to  the  Church,  125. 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  on  Divine 
Immanence,  26,  67. 

Arabian  philosophy,  13. 

Arbitrary  God,  in  primitive  folk- 
faith,  147. 

survival  of  the  notion  of,  148. 

Arianism,  68. 

Arius  on  Resurrection',  220. 

Arnold,  Sir  E.,  quoted  on  Peace  of 
the  Church,  135. 

Arnold,  M.,  on  decay  of  Faith,  75. 

on  Eternal  Life,  271. 

on  Infallibility  of  the  Church, 
115. 

Art,  Byzantine,  and  the  dead 
Christ,  237. 

of  Greece,  influence  of  theory 
of  Resurrection  upon,  230, 

n.  1. 


304 


INDEX. 


Art,  its  influence  on  early  survivals 
in  Christianity,  71. 
of  Early  Egypt,  influenced  by 
folk-faitli,  230. 

Aryan  Monotheism,  more  stable 
than  Semitic,  41. 

Athanasius,  on  deification  of  hu¬ 
manity,  51. 

on  Divine  Immanence,  G6. 
on  Eternal  Logos,  GO. 

Athenagoras  on  Resurrection,  194. 

Atonement,  Anselmic  doctrine  of, 
GO. 

Bp.  Butler  on,  176. 

Atonement,  and  magic,  84. 

Augustine,  St.,  13. 

his  influence  on  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  doctrine  of  for¬ 
giveness  of  sins,  177. 
on  the  Resurrection,  235. 
on  the  privilege  of  Peter,  106. 
his  dualism,  266. 

Authority,  basis  of,  23, 134. 

Azazel,  predecessor  of  Satan,  158. 

See  Scapegoat,  Substitution, 
Sinbearer. 

B. 

Bacon  on  human  error,  3. 

Baptism  and  resurrection,  221.  See 
Irenaeus,  Justin,  etc. 

Baptism  for  forgiveness,  144. 

Baptists,  distinctive  truth  of  the, 
132. 

Barbarossa,  mediaeval  popular  be¬ 
lief  about,  227. 

Barrow,  Isaac,  on  Resurrection,  195. 

Bible  (the) ,  a  record  of  progressive 
reception  of  truth,  7. 

Bohmen,  Jacob,  on  Eternal  Life, 
246,  282. 


Bowen,  Professor  Francis,  on 
transmigration  of  souls,  255. 

Brahm,  38,  116. 

Browning,  Robert,  on  Renaissance 
belief  in  consciousness  of 
dead,  229. 

on  extinction  of  evil,  267. 
on  service  of  man,  138. 
on  the  perfection  of  the  Uni¬ 
verse,  289. 

on  human  progress,  quoted, 

33. 

doctrine  of  cosmic  resurrection 
process,  240,  241. 
on  remission  of  sin  from  the 
world,  189. 

on  Christ  in  the  world,  88. 

Buddhism,  43,  83. 

its  self-renunciation  contrasted 
with  the  Christian  self-re¬ 
nunciation,  113. 

and  Brahminism  at  one  in  the 
doctrine  of  Absorption  of  the 
soul  in  God,  251,  n.  1. 

Burnt  Column,  the,  6. 

Butler,  Bp.,  on  Atonement  theories, 
176. 

C. 

Calvinism  and  Neoplatonism,  12. 
and  polytheism,  42. 
its  idea  of  God,  148. 
and  devil  worship,  147,  152. 

Catacombs,  their  influence  on 
Christian  doctrine,  9. 
their  testimony  to  early  Chris¬ 
tian  belief  in  resurrection, 
231. 

their  testimony  to  survivals  of 
paganism,  222. 

See  Art. 


INDEX. 


805 


Catholic  Church,  Antenicene  defi¬ 
nitions  of,  98,  99. 

Anglican  definitions  of,  78,  79, 
93. 

Matthew  Arnold’s  definition 
of,  115. 

true  members  of,  78. 

See  Apostolic  Church. 

Catholicity,  Jeremy  Taylor  on,  2, 
131. 

Ceremonies  [see  Ritual,  Symbol, 
Sacrifice]  relative  to  relig¬ 
ion,  10. 

dramatic,  104. 

Charlemagne,  medieval  popular 
belief  about,  227. 

Christianises  the  Saxons,  10. 

Christian  religion,  spread  of,  8. 

Christian  Science,  19,  56. 

Christmas,  11. 

Chrysostom,  St.  John,  on  Resurrec¬ 
tion,  235. 

Church,  definition  of,  in  XIXth 
Article  of  Religion,  93. 

how  constituted  and  instituted, 
92. 

theory  of,  in  early  Latin  the¬ 
ology,  96. 

undergoing  a  supernatural  evo¬ 
lution,  118. 

relation  of  individual  to,  94. 

and  State  united,  idea  of  Hindu 
and  Greek  thought,  88. 

and  World,  133. 

unity  of,  103. 

“  Notes  ”  of,  97,  101. 

See  Unity,  Holiness,  Catho¬ 
licity,  Apostolicity. 

article  of,  not  in  early  creeds 
of  East,  95. 

of  West,  96. 

of  Rome,  effect  of  politics  on,  17. 


Clement,  St.,  of  Alexandria,  on 
defective  receptiveness,  3. 
on  forgiveness,  173. 
on  salvation  in  the  Church  only, 
99. 

his  gnosis,  100. 

of  Rome,  on  Episcopacy  and 
Succession,  119. 

Clericalism,  inevitable,  12. 

survival  of  Shamanism,  84,  127, 
252. 

Clough,  A.  H.,  on  resurrection  of 
society,  195. 

Cobbe,  F.  P.,  on  Mystery  of  Pain, 
215. 

Collegia  of  Rome,  survivals  in  the 
Church,  88,  91. 

Comparative  religion,  17. 

Communion  with  God,  275  and  n.  5. 
with  the  god  in  Mexican  relig¬ 
ion,  154. 

with  God  in  Hebrew  ceremo¬ 
nial,  167,  n.  1. 

Congregational  form  of  polity,  a 
survival,  88. 

Congregationals,  their  special 
truth,  132. 

Constantine  the  Great,  6,  10. 

Continuity  of  the  Church,  127. 

Conversion,  sensible,  survival  of 
adeptism,  86,  and  of  Sham¬ 
anism,  149,  279. 

Coronation  stone,  16. 

Cross,  symbol  of  life  not  of  death 
only,  165,  240. 

Crucifixion  in  early  Art,  49. 

Culture,  ancient,  rejected  by  the 
Church,  12. 

Cusa,  Nicolas,  on  Divine  Imma¬ 
nence,  67. 

Cyprian,  St.,  Theory  of  the  Church, 
99. 


306 


INDEX. 


D. 

Dance  of  death,  229. 

Dante,  on  coequality  of  the  Persons 
of  the  Trinity,  62. 
on  dead  souls,  272,  n.  5. 
influence  of  his  Divine  Comedy 
on  popular  conceptions  of 
state  of  dead,  236. 
on  “donation  of  Constantine,” 
87. 

on  punishment  of  sin,  184. 
on  Immanence  of  God,  26. 
on  Rewards  and  punishments, 
265. 

Death,  eternal,  284,  288. 

of  Jesus,  its  significance,  202. 

Deism,  43. 

Development  of  doctrine,  2,  20,  51. 

Devil  worship  of  primitive  man, 
147. 

worshippers,  152. 

Dioceses,  small,  evils  of,  122. 

Diognetus,  Epistle  of,  173. 

Dionysiac  mysteries  and  mythos  of 
the  Resurrection,  238. 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite  and 
patheistic  mysticism,  44. 

Divine  vicegerents  and  the  papal 
theory,  37. 

Doctrine  of  Church  Fathers,  never 
any  concensus  of,  79. 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the,  the 
true  idea  of  God,  60-62. 
of  Christian  religion,  some 
primary  postulates,  21. 
Christian,  Evolution  of,  7,  18, 
22,  etc. 

Christian,  pagan  elements  of, 
7, 15,  67,  etc.  (see  Survivals), 
how  to  separate  paganism  from, 
73. 


Doctrine,  Christianity  influenced 
by  philosophy  and  law,  18. 
of  sin  over-analysed,  178. 

Doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion, 
what  are  essential,  3,  26. 

Dogma.  See  Doctrine. 

Dualism,  its  basis,  61 ;  its  survivals, 
72. 

in  materialistic  theories  of  Res¬ 
urrection,  220. 

E. 

Eckehart’sdebt  to  Neoplatonism,  13. 
on  Immanence  of  God,  26. 
on  St.  Paul’s  doctrine  of  evolu¬ 
tion,  58. 

Edda,  on  Odin’s  self-immolation, 
161. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  on  God  the 
beginning  and  end  of  theol¬ 
ogy,  290. 

Egyptian  Art,  originally  realistic, 
230. 

religion,  44. 

theory  of  resuscitation  of  the 
dead,  229. 

“Elements”  surviving  in  Chris¬ 
tian  belief,  71. 

Eleusis  and  the  Church,  83. 

and  doctrine  of  Resurrection, 
238. 

Enoch,  Book  of,  on  the  Millennium 
260. 

on  Azazel,  158. 

Emanations,  theory,  63. 

Episcopacy  a  basis  of  unity,  129. 
its  importance,  124-129. 
of  the  integrity  of  the  Church, 
127,  n.  1. 
historic,  127. 

See  Apostolicity. 


INDEX. 


307 


Episcopate,  historic,  asserted  in 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  78. 

Erigena  on  Divine  Immanence,  66. 

Error,  religious.  See  Survivals. 

Eternal  birth-process,  a  statement 
of  Evolution,  181. 

See  Regeneration. 

Eternal  death,  284. 

from  failure  to  conform  to  the 
Environment,  265,  283,  287. 

Eternal  life,  its  raison  d'etre ,  270, 
275. 

begins  in  the  present,  271. 
progressive,  285,  288. 
according  to  the  Theologica 
Germanica,  246. 

Jeremy  Taylor  on,  246. 
in  teaching  of  Jesus,  269. 
in  Egyptian  folk-faith,  258. 
in  the  Edda,  257. 
ethical  doctrine  of,  183,  n.  2,  280. 
and  natural  law,  287. 
a  present  condition,  270. 

Eternity  of  evil,  not  possible,  266. 

Ethical  form  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Resurrection,  242. 

Euripides,  his  idea  of  divine  sac¬ 
rifice,  48. 

Everlasting.  See  Eternal. 

Evil  is  privative,  181. 

Eternal,  and  Wagner’s  criti¬ 
cism,  266. 

Evolution,  and  Resurrection  in 
Pauline  theology,  208. 

St.  Paul’s  statement  of,  57. 
of  the  Church,  211. 
the  cosmic  passion,  58. 
and  theism,  291. 

Expiatory  sacrifice,  its  rational 
basis,  69. 

Extinction  of  Sin,  due  to  Divine 
Immanence,  188. 


F. 

Fathers  of  the  Church,  no  con¬ 
sensus  of  doctrines  of,  79. 

Faith,  Catholic,  2. 

Fall  of  Man,  a  truth  of  psychology, 
189. 

Fear,  the  secret  god  of  Rome,  148. 

influence  on  development  of 
theology,  153,  277. 

in  primitive  religion,  148. 

Feminine  principle,  63,  64. 

Fetishism,  37,  120. 

Fichte,  26. 

Fictions,  theological,  140,  170. 

Fire-worship,  14. 

Fiske,  John,  on  Romans  viii.  18- 
26,  216. 

quoted,  on  Pardon,  138. 

Foreordination,  68. 

Forgiveness  of  sins,  in  the  Creed, 

143. 

not  an  evasion  of  penalty  alone, 
146. 

not  magical,  133,  185. 

of  sins,  chief  office  of  the 
Church,  144. 

See  Pardon. 

Free-thought,  hostility  of  Church 
to,  13. 

Francis  Xavier,  St.,  on  love  of 
God,  quoted,  40. 

G. 

Genius  of  Roman  Emperor,  38. 

Gibbon,  Edw.,  on  absolute  revela¬ 
tion  and  conditioned  recep¬ 
tivity,  9. 

error  about  the  eating  of  the 
slain  god,  153. 

|  Gilgul,  a  Rabbinic  doctrine,  225, 253. 


308 


INDEX. 


God,  primary  idea  of,  32  seq.,  35, 
30,  39,  42,  45,  61. 
proofs  of  existence  of,  31. 
knowledge  of,  51,  74. 
in  His  World,  Goethe  on,  27. 
idea  of,  comprehends  all  theol¬ 
ogy,  33. 

God-consciousness,  51. 

Fichte  on,  26. 

Gotterdammerung,  its  ethos,  206. 

Goethe,  27,  31. 

Ghost-world  in  patristic  theology, 
277  and  n.  1. 
of  primitive  man,  250. 
of  Egypt,  229. 

Ghosts,  feeding  the,  15,  221,  259. 

Gorham  Case,  145,  n.  1. 

Gnosticism,  234. 
its  problem,  63. 

Gnosis  of  the  Gospel,  274. 

Grace,  a  theory  of,  111,  182. 
double  aspect,  201,  n.  3. 

Gregory  the  Great,  St.,  on  Divine 
Immanence,  66. 

Ground  of  Authority,  134. 

Guilt,  inherited,  178. 

inherited,  a  survival  of  Ancient 
Semitic  Materialism,  253. 

H. 

Haag  on  lack  of  agreement  of  the 
Fathers,  79. 

Hall,  Bp.,  on  Episcopacy,  118. 

Harnack  on  cultus  of  relics,  232. 

Hartmann’s  explanation  of  the 
predominance  of  pain  over 
pleasure,  213. 

Harwood,  G.,  on  actual  forgive¬ 
ness,  139. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  his  psychol¬ 
ogy  of  sin  and  its  forgive¬ 
ness,  187. 


Heaven,  270. 

in  early  folk-faith,  260. 

See  Eternal  Life. 

Hell,  a  dualistic  survival,  267. 

Hegel  on  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
70. 

on  Resurrection,  240. 

Hesperides,  260. 

Hierarchial  theory  of  the  Church, 
a  survival  of  Shamanism, 
127. 

Higher  Criticism  and  Theology,  5. 

Hinton  on  Mystery  of  Pain,  214. 

Hippolytus,  St.,  theory  of  two  res¬ 
urrections,  221. 

Historic  Episcopate,  127. 

See  Continuity  of  the  Church, 
Apostolic  Succession,  Tact¬ 
ual,  St.  Spiridion,  Ordina¬ 
tion. 

Holiness  of  God,  the  ground  of  His 
Eternal  Existence,  275. 
the  condition  of  life  eternal,  276. 
of  Church,  105. 

distinguished  from  Nirvana,  240. 

Holy  Ghost,  a  person,  64. 

Holy  Grail  in  relation  to  Christian 
doctrine,  203,  n.  7. 

Hooker,  quoted  on  absolute  neces¬ 
sity  of  Episcopal  form  of 
government,  117. 
on  non-Episcopal  Ordination, 
126. 

Hooker’s  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  125, 
n.  1. 

Hugo,  Victor,  on  Cultus  of  Saints, 
38. 

Human  Sacrifice,  origin  of.  See 
Scapegoat. 

Humiliation.  See  Kenosis. 

Huntington,  Bp.,  on  functions  of  a 
bishop,  120  ff. 


INDEX. 


309 


Hymnology,  relative  to  ritual  in 
development,  252. 

I. 

Idea  of  God,  innate,  32. 
in  Monotheism,  42. 

Ignatius,  St.,  theory  of  the  Church, 
98. 

theory  of  Resurrection,  219. 

Illusion,  theory  of  the  world,  55. 

Immanence  of  God,  26. 

in  doctrine  of  the  Fathers,  66- 
67. 

a  Pauline  doctrine,  65. 
a  Johannine  doctrine,  54. 
according  to  Ezekiel,  65. 
Tennyson  quoted,  44. 

Shelley  quoted,  45. 
relative  to  Incarnation,  27. 
taught  in  O.  T.,  58. 
the  actual  source  of  pardon,  169. 
relative  to  forgiveness  of  sins, 
143. 

inferred  from  development  of 
ethnic  religions,  52. 
and  His  transcendence,  hearing 
upon  the  organisation  of  the 
Church,  108. 
and  Eternal  Life,  273. 
relation  to  the  Church,  132. 
relative  to  Holiness  of  Church, 
111,  114. 

the  true  Philosophy  of  History, 
56. 

relation  to  Unity  of  Church, 
108. 

of  the  Word,  54. 

Immanence  of  Holy  Trinity,  ra¬ 
tional  basis,  55. 


Immanence  versus  the  world  an 
illusion,  55. 

Immolation  of  the  divine  Victim 
in  Christian  Ceremonies,  154. 

See  Victim. 

Immortality,  276,  n.  2. 
conditional,  196. 
conditional  in  Hinduism,  252. 
innate,  not  Biblical  doctrine, 
268. 

Imperialism,  a  survival,  17. 

of  Rome,  effect  upon  the  Church, 
the  Church,  87,  99. 

Incarnation,  its  essential  signifi¬ 
cance,  48. 

and  mediation,  181. 

Tennyson’s  statement,  47. 

Independents.  See  Congregation- 
als. 

Indulgences,  origin  of  the  doctrine 
of,  266. 

Infallibility,  23,  37. 

of  Roman  Church,  114,  n.  1. 
a  sign  of  Catholicity?,  117. 
origin  of  idea  of,  85. 

Infallible  Church,  a  comprehensive 
definition,  116. 

Irenreus,  St.,  on  Apostolic  succes¬ 
sion,  119. 

on  Eternal  Life,  281. 
on  forgiveness  of  sins,  173. 
on  conditional  immortality,  220, 
280. 

not  orthodox  on  doctrine  of 
Christ’s  natures,  11,  n.  3. 
theory  of  the  Church,  96,  99. 
on  Resurrection,  220,  221* 

Islam,  degeneracy  of,  41. 

Izdubar  Epic  on  “  outer  darkness,” 
263. 

a  myth  of  pain  and  human  prog¬ 
ress,  162. 


310 


INDEX. 


J. 

Jesus,  purpose  of,  20. 
secret  of,  45,  46. 
mediation  of,  183. 
unselfish  love,  40. 
misunderstood,  8. 
doctrine  slowly  accepted,  11. 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  89  ff. 
doctrine  of  the  Absolution,  169 ff. 
doctrine  of  the  Resurrection, 
200  ff. 

doctrine  of  the  Heaven,  268  ff. 

Jewish  theory  of  Resurrection,  223. 

Jews,  Polish,  their  curious  burial 
custom,  225. 

John  of  Damascus,  St.,  on  divine 
Immanence,  66. 

Justice,  love,  and  mercy  identical 
in  the  theology  of  the  LXX., 
185,  n.  2. 

Justification,  doctrine  of,  23,  111, 
182,  n.  3,  276,  n.  1. 

Justin  Martyr,  St.,  12. 

on  Forgiveness  of  Sins,  173. 
on  Resurrection,  219. 
on  identity  of  the  Word  and 
reason,  50. 

Justinian,  Emperor,  12. 

K. 

Karens’  notion  of  future  life,  257. 

Karma,  attempt  to  revive  the 
theory  of,  238,  240. 

Karl  the  Great,  proselytism  of,  10. 

Kenosis  of  Jesus,  182,  n.  3, 102,  201. 

Kenosis,  Church  a  kenosis  of  Holy 
Ghost,  102. 

of  the  Iloly  Ghost,  63. 

Kingdom  of  God,  at  first  known  in 
person  of  Jesus  only,  90. 


Kingdom  of  God,  in  parables,  90, 91. 
in  relation  to  sociology,  91,  93. 

Kingdom  of  God  and  the  Church, 
93,  98. 

Kings,  origin  of  theory  of  divine 
right  of,  85. 

L. 

Lamb  of  God,  155,  165,  166. 

Landor,  W.  S.,  quoted,  2. 

Leaven,  of  parable  is  God  Himself, 
217. 

Legal  theology  not  saving,  278. 

Legends,  Christian,  origin  of,  11. 

Leibnitz  and  preestablished  har¬ 
mony,  68,  n.  2. 

Lia  Fail,  16.  See  Stone  Worship 
and  Altar. 

Liddon,  Canon,  denies  theory  of 
an  arbitrary  God,  148. 

Limbo,  262. 

Life,  its  nature,  desire,  183. 
Eternal.  See  Eternal, 
self-retributive,  277. 
victorious  over  death  in  nature, 
Swinburne’s  opinion,  243. 
omnipresent,  in  poetry,  34,  35, 
43,  56. 

omnipresent,  in  theology,  35. 

Logos.  See  Word  of  God,  Incar¬ 
nation. 

Lotze,  19. 

on  resurrection  of  flesh,  208. 

Love,  divine,  47,  50,  61. 

essentially  sacrificial  of  self,  167. 
fundamental  Idea  of  God,  47. 
the  basis  of  theology  and  re¬ 
ligion,  26. 

Love  divine,  Lucretius  and  Eu¬ 
ripides  on,  48. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  on  dead  souls,  272. 


INDEX. 


311 


Luck,  as  a  religious  concept,  34, 
n.  1. 

Lucretius,  his  idea  of  divine  love, 
48. 

Luz,  the  bone,  223. 

M. 

Magic,  its  origin,  34,  112. 

survival  among  Christians,  84, 
228. 

and  the  divine  name,  112. 
influence  on  Christian  The¬ 
ology,  84, 112. 

surviving  in  theories  of  forgive¬ 
ness,  145. 

Magical  theory  of  Holy  Baptism, 
114. 

Mahomet,  attempt  to  proclaim  him 
God  incarnate,  41. 

Maimonides  on  soul  of  the  dead,  233. 

Manes  worship,  and  cultus  of 
saints,  38. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  Emperor,  on  the 
true  motive  of  righteousness, 
283. 

Marlowe,  Christopher,  on  heaven, 
247. 

Martyrdom  of  Man,  Swinburne, 
JEschylus,  and  the  Gospels 
on,  162. 

Matheson,  A.,  on  basis  of  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  humanity,  23. 

Materialism  in  Theology,  69,  119, 
163. 

Mediator,  Jesus  Christ  in  His  hu¬ 
manity,  183. 
primitive  notion  of,  72. 

Menhirs,  14-16. 

Merits,  origin  of  the  doctrine  of, 
264. 

Metanoia,  definition  of,  94,  n.  1, 


Metempsychosis.  See  Transmigra¬ 
tion. 

Method  of  theological  study,  22. 

Methodism,  its  distinctive  truth,  132. 

Methodist  Episcopal,  theory  of 
Episcopate,  its  early  form, 
100. 

Millennial  doctrines,  origin, 260, 223. 

Milton,  on  the  Fall,  177. 

his  abandonment  of  Christian¬ 
ity,  43. 

Monotheism,  pure,  negates  itself, 
43. 

not  result  of  evolution,  41. 
its  truth,  60. 
its  weakness,  61. 

Monism,  19. 

Moore,  Rev.  Aubrey  L.,  on  place  in 
theology  of  sin  doctrines,  26. 

Mormonism,  63. 

Mountains,  sacred,  37. 

Montanism,  9. 

Mytlios,  how  different  from  myth, 
162. 

Myths,  invention  of,  17. 
survivals  of,  71. 

Mystics  of  fourteenth  century,  13. 

Mysteries,  Eleusinian,  mytlios  of, 

86. 

Mystery,  Paul’s  use  of  word,  47, 
notes. 

N. 

Navajo  myth  of  a  redeemer,  162. 

Necromancy,  256,  258. 

Nibelungenlied,  11. 

Neoplatonism  and  Christian  be¬ 
liefs,  12. 

Nirvana,  251. 

Noble,  J.  A.,  on  sin  and  pardon, 

139. 


312 


INDEX. 


Norse  folk-faith  concerning  the 
dead,  227. 

myth  of  a  redeemer,  161. 

Notes  of  the  Church,  goal  of 
Church’s  progress,  102,  109, 
130.  See  Church. 

O. 

Ordination  of  primitive  priesthood, 

86. 

Organisation  of  Church,  105. 

Origen,  12. 

on  resurrection  body,  226. 

on  Divine  Immanence,  66. 

on  Forgiveness  of  Sins,  173. 

Original  sin,  178. 

Omar  Khayyam  on  immortality, 
233. 

“  Outer  darkness  ”  in  Semitic  folk- 
faith,  263. 

Orthodoxy,  51. 

P. 

Paganism,  70,  71.  See  Survivals. 

Pater,  Walter,  on  peace  of  the 
Church,  12. 

Pain,  its  use,  164. 

problem,  Von  Hartmann’s  so¬ 
lution,  213. 

problem  of,  Browning’s  solu¬ 
tion,  139. 

problem  of,  in  relation  to  For¬ 
giveness  of  Sins,  181. 

in  relation  to  Resurrection,  212, 
243. 

a  compensation  for  sin,  influ¬ 
ence  of  this  theory  on  Chris¬ 
tian  doctrine,  264. 

Pantheism,  its  truth,  60. 

its  logical  and  historical  evolu¬ 
tion,  44. 


Pantheism  in  poetry,  35. 
in  folk-lore,  35. 

Papacy,  claims  of,  105,  n.  1. 

Pardon  and  natural  law,  138,  188. 
its  relation  to  immanence  of 
God,  169. 

Parousia.  See  Presence. 

Parson,  origin  of  the  idea  of,  85. 

Particular  predestination.  See 
Predestination. 

Passion,  the,  of  the  universe,  214. 

Passion  plays,  the  Greek,  162. 

Paul,  St.,  on  Cosmic  passion,  216. 
on  the  problem  of  pain,  58. 

Paul’s,  St.,  answer  to  pessimism, 
181. 

Pauline  psychology  of  Resurrec¬ 
tion,  208. 

Penalty,  relation  to  sin,  179. 

Pessimism,  179. 

Petrine  Claims,  105,  n.  1. 

Perfection,  32. 

Person,  a  theological  term,  64,  n.  2. 

Pillar  saints,  a  survival  of  stone 
worship,  16. 

Plato  on  souls  and  stars,  238. 

Platonism  and  Christian  theology, 

12. 

and  St.  Augustine,  177. 

Plotinus,  his  last  words,  74. 

Polytheism,  37. 
its  truth,  60. 
survivals  of,  39,  72. 

Pontifex  Maximus,  survival  of,  87. 

Pope,  origin  of  the  notion  of,  37. 

Potter,  the  divine,  Hodge,  Shedd, 
Carlyle,  and  Browning  on, 
150. 

the  divine,  in  Egypt,  149. 

Power,  spiritual  and  temporal 
united,  a  concept  of  folk- 
faith,  37. 


INDEX. 


313 


Prayer,  Book  of  Common,  19. 

Predestination,  particular,  doc¬ 
trine,  a  survival  from  early 
folk-faith,  149. 

Precious  Blood  doctrine,  203. 

Priesthood,  its  true  place  in  Chris¬ 
tian  Church,  92. 

Presbyterians’,  distinctive  truth, 
132. 

Presbyterial  organisation,  107. 

Presence  of  Christ  in  the  world,  53. 

Propitiatory  sacrifices,  primitive, 
36,  39. 

sacrifice,  basis  of  idea  of,  60. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  its 
actual  organic  condition,  108. 

Prothesis,  Order  of,  in  Eastern 
Church,  154. 

Psychology  of  primitive  men,  250. 
of  Sts.  Paul  and  Peter,  206-209. 

Purgatory  in  folk-faith,  164,  n. 

R. 

Ransom,  170,  n.  2.  See  Tlieophy- 
lact. 

Rawes,  H.  A.,  on  immanence  of  the 
Triune  God,  76. 

Receptiveness  relative  to  true  doc¬ 
trine,  9. 
of  mankind,  3. 

Redemptive  process  of  life,  214. 

Redemption,  Jeremy  Taylor  on, 
151. 

commercial  theory  of,  146.  See 
Scapegoat. 

Regeneration,  145. 

in  Holy  Baptism,  112. 

Reincarnation.  See  Transmigra¬ 
tion. 

Relics,  cnltus  of,  its  origin  magi¬ 
cal,  232. 


Religion,  comparative,  Study  of, 
17,  18. 

primitive,  34  ff. 

of  Christ,  in  visible  and  corpo¬ 
rate  form,  92. 

Renan,  cited,  45. 

Rephaim,  258. 

Resurrection  of  Jesus,  199-204. 
of  the  dead,  in  Creed,  199. 
doctrine  peculiar  to  Christian¬ 
ity,  195,  196. 

begins  in  the  present,  209. 
a  change  to  a  higher  state,  195. 
in  nature,  Swinburne’s  thought, 
243. 

theology  of,  not  yet  highly  de¬ 
veloped  in  Christian  theol¬ 
ogy,  218. 

different  from  resuscitation, 
207,  208  n.  1. 
of  the  wicked,  207,  n.  2. 
a  moral  process  in  the  world, 
195. 

in  patristic  theology,  218-223. 
in  Talmud,  225. 

dependent  on  preservation  of 
corpse,  229-233. 
in  Greek  folk-lore,  238. 

Retribution,  277. 

future,  subjective,  149. 
theory,  influence  of,  on  art, 
poetry,  and  drama,  282. 

Revelation  of  God  in  human  prog¬ 
ress,  52. 
and  God,  31. 

Rewards  and  penalties  according 
to  Omar  Khayyam,  149. 
and  punishments,  influence  of 
theology  of,  in  development 
of  Christendom,  282. 
and  punishments  in  folk-faith, 
268. 


314 


INDEX. 


Rewards  and  punishments,  why  a 
popular  element  of  relig¬ 
ious  teaching,  277,  282. 

Reynaud  on  heaven,  286. 

Right,  no  arbitrary  standard  of, 
42,  n.  1,  148. 

Ritual,  dramatic,  a  survival,  104. 
and  religion,  16,  84. 

Rossetti,  D.  G.,  on  progress  of  soul 
after  death,  285. 

Rotlie,  R.,  on  forgiveness  of  sin, 
139. 

Roman  law  and  doctrine  of  for¬ 
giveness  of  sins,  175. 

Rufinus  against  resurrection  of  the 
flesh,  196. 

S. 

Sacerdotalism,  origin  of,  37. 

a  survival  of  Shamanism,  84, 
99. 

Sacraments,  materialistic  theory 
of,  119. 

and  magic,  84,  112. 

Sacramental  Absolution,  its  power, 
190. 

Sacred  Heart,  Symbol  of  Cultus, 
224,  n.  1. 

Sacrifice,  origin  of  custom,  34,  39. 
propitiatory,  259  n.  2. 
propiatory,  origin,  39. 
of  Jesus  a  revealment,  49. 

Sacrificial  system  of  Israel,  36, 
167,  n.  1. 

Saining  torch,  158. 

Saint  John’s  day,  11. 

Saints,  cultus  of,  38,  70,  72. 
merits  of,  264. 

Saint-worship  in  Islam,  41. 

Salvation  outside  Church  impossi¬ 
ble,  100. 


Sanctification,  immediate,  a  survi¬ 
val,  39. 

Satisfaction,  origin  of  doctrine, 
153. 

first  appearance  in  Christian 
theology,  174. 

Saviour  God,  Jesus  a  revealment 
of,  89. 

Sinew  which  shrank,  why  not 
eaten,  226. 

Scapegoat,  human,  85. 
in  India,  157. 
among  the  Hebrews,  158. 
in  Thibetan  Buddhism,  158. 
in  Athens,  159. 

Rome,  159. 

Babylon,  159. 

Mexico,  159. 

theory  responsible  for  death  of 
Jesus,  160. 

theory  in  Ante-Nicene  theology, 
161,  172-173. 

Self-interest  no  part  of  religion  of 
Jesus,  284,  287. 
and  the  Church  idea,  133. 

Self-sacrifice  of  Izdubar,  162. 

Shakspere  on  God’s  forgiveness, 
187. 

Shamanism  and  revivals,  279. 
survival  in  liierarchial  systems, 
127. 

Schopenhauer,  how  his  theory 
differs  from  teaching  of  Je¬ 
sus,  180. 

Shelley  on  human  receptiveness, 
50. 

on  Immanence  of  God,  45. 

Sill,  E.  R.,  on  evil  of  Sins  of  Igno¬ 
rance,  191. 

Sin-bearer.  See  Scapegoat, 
bearing  and  witchcraft,  157. 
eating,  155. 


INDEX. 


815 


Sin-bearer  in  Hebrew  rites,  156. 
doctrine,  misplaced  by  theolo¬ 
gians,  26. 

Christian  doctrine  of,  not  de¬ 
rived  from  folk-faith,  164. 
what  it  is,  183. 

place  of  doctrine  of,  in  Theol¬ 
ogy,  33. 

transference  of,  156,  157. 
is  positive,  182,  n.  1. 
and  pain  confused,  survival  of 
primitive  notion,  163. 

Social  problems  and  Holy  Com¬ 
munion,  113. 
and  the  Church,  133. 
and  the  Resurrection,  243. 

Sociology  and  Forgiveness  of  sins, 
144. 

Soma,  14.  See  Transubstantiation. 

Spinoza  on  Facultative  Immortal¬ 
ity,  288. 

Spiridion,  St.,  dead  hand  of,  228. 

Spirit,  guidance  of  Holy,  did  not 
cease  with  Anti-Nicene 
epoch,  117. 

Spiritism,  70. 

Shields,  Professor  of  Princeton,  on 
Episcopacy,  the  ground  of 
Church  unity,  128. 

Soul’s  sleep  in  death,  237. 

Stations  of  the  Cross,  origin  of,  9. 

Stoic  sects,  relative  to  Church 
organisation,  83. 

Stoicheia,  71. 

Stones,  sacred,  14,  15. 

Strauss,  David,  mythical  theory  of 
the  Passion,  163. 

Stylites,  16. 

Substitutionary  death,  origin  of 
custom,  153,  159. 

Substitution,  doctrine,  of  its  ori¬ 
gin,  153. 


Substitutionary  sacrifice,  in  .Es- 
chylus’  drama,  161. 

Sufism  in  Islam,  41. 

Sun-myth  in  Church  ceremonies, 
226. 

Survival  of  folk-faith  in  theories 
of  atonement,  176. 
of  polytheism  in  Christian  The¬ 
ology,  67. 

Survivals  of  paganism  in  theology 
of  the  Resurrection,  220,  234. 
of  Shamanism,  85,  127. 
of  magic,  112,  146. 
of  primitive  materialism,  253. 
of  fire  worship,  14. 
of  fetishism,  120,  232. 
of  dualism,  37,  73,  267. 
in  theories  of  the  Church,  99. 
of  eternal  life,  281. 

Symbols,  pagan,  of  Christian  ideas, 
9. 

Synagogue  did  not  suggest  the 
form  of  Church  organisation, 
84. 

T. 

Tactual  Succession  not  the  doctrine 
of  Clement  of  Rome,  119. 
of  the  ministry,  not  a  Roman 
Catholic  theory,  125. 
not  an  Anglican  theory,  125, 126. 

Talmud  on  State  of  the  Dead,  232. 
on  Resurrection  of  body,  225. 

Tatian  on  Resurrection,  219. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  on  Divine  Imma¬ 
nence  and  Incarnation,  27. 
on  Comprehensiveness  as  basis 
of  Unity,  131. 
on  Eternal  Life,  246. 
on  pardon,  138. 
on  true  Catholicity,  2. 

Telesterion  at  Eleusis,  83. 


316 


INDEX. 


Tennyson,  Lord,  on  moral  evolu¬ 
tion  of  man,  217. 
on  Pantheism,  44. 

Tertullian,  non-sacerdotal  theory 
of  the  Church,  78. 
gross  theory  of  Resurrection, 
221. 

Testament  of  Jesus  not  His  last 
will,  167,  n.  1. 

Theodore,  St.,  and  Romulus,  70. 

Theologica  Germctnica,  13. 

Theology  of  Church  heterogene¬ 
ous,  3. 

progression  in,  22-24. 
consistency  in,  22,  23. 
study,  7. 
new  methods,  6. 

Theophilus  on  Conditional  Immor¬ 
tality,  196. 
on  Resurrection,  221. 

Theophylact,  on  Ransom  of  Christ, 
168. 

Tliommasin  on  Immanence  of  God, 
32,  n.  1. 

Transcendence  and  Immanence 
both  true,  59. 
hare,  a  survival,  68. 

Transmigration,  survival  of  idea 
in  Christian  legends,  253. 
not  taught  by  Jesus,  253. 
of  souls  in  folk-faith,  249-251. 
in  Talmud,  238. 

purpose  of  the  doctrine,  254,  355. 

Transubstantiation  and  fetishism, 
120.  See  Soma. 

Trinity,  doctrine  of,  26,  53,  59,  60, 
62,  69,  70. 

doctrine  of,  safeguard  against 
Agnosticism,  65. 

Truth,  reality,  54. 


U. 

Uniformity,  Hooker  on,  117. 

in  belief  and  worship  impracti¬ 
cable,  20. 

Unitarianism  unreasonable,  43. 

Unitarians,  their  true  principle, 
131. 

Unity,  basis  of,  104,  105. 

of  Church,  how  signified,  103. 
of  Church,  a  terminvs  ad  quem, 
109. 

of  Christendom,  134. 

Universalism  based  upon  wrong 
idea  of  the  nature  of  Eternal 
Life,  262. 

Unselfishness,  the  doctrine  of,  113. 

V. 

Valhalla,  the  Norse  heaven,  262. 

Vampirism,  Babylonian  origin,  234. 

Vedas,  theory  of  heaven,  263. 
their  doctrine,  14. 
on  efficacy  of  penance,  252. 

Vestis  Angelica,  or  monastic  habit 
for  a  death  robe,  262. 

Vicar  of  God,  in  primitive  folk- 
faith,  85. 

Vicarious  suffering  not  vicarious 
satisfaction  in  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  153. 

Victim,  slaying  of  the,  Bp.  But¬ 
ler’s  criticism  of  this  element 
in  Christian  doctrine,  176. 
in  Christian  theology,  163,  171, 
174,  264. 

in  Assyrian  epic,  162. 
in  Eastern  liturgy,  154. 
in  Greek  drama,  163. 


INDEX. 


317 


Victim  in  Norse  mythology,  161. 
in  folk-faitli,  163. 
in  the  Gospels,  160. 

Virgin,  cultus  of,  64-74. 

W. 

Watson,  William,  on  Divine  Im¬ 
manence,  56. 

Weregeld,  influence  on  Christian 
doctrine,  175. 

Wheel  of  Life,  210. 

Word,  Eternal  Generation  of,  a 
practical  truth,  60. 
Immanence  of,  a  Johanine  doc¬ 
trine,  54. 

Word  of  God  and  reason  one.  See 
St.  Justin  Martyr. 

St.  Athanasius  on,  66. 
the  life  of  the  Universe,  271. 

Word-made-Flesh,  significance  of, 
48,  52. 


Wordsworth,  protest  against  no¬ 
tion  of  bare  transcendence, 
73. 

Works,  efficacy  of,  74. 

Wrath  principle  human,  266. 
Wrath  of  God,  283. 

Anti-Nicene  doctrine  of,  173. 
influence  of  the  idea  in  Chris¬ 
tian  Art,  72. 

denied  by  Bp.  Taylor,  151. 

Y. 

Yezidee’s  idea  of  God  and  of  evil, 

152. 

Yountoo,  232. 

Z. 

Zeitgeist  idea,  116. 

Zoliar,  nihilism  of,  43. 
its  doctrine  of  God,  43. 


J  amtary  1893 


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LECTURES  ON  THE  REVELATION  OF  ST.  JOHN.  By  Very 
Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan.  5th  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 


THE  BIBLE  WORD-BOOK.  By  W.  Aldis  Wright.  2nd  Edition. 
Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Christian  Cburcb,  1b  is  to  n>  of  tbe 

Church  (Dean).  — THE  OXFORD  MOVEMENT.  Twelve 
Years,  1833-45.  Globe  8vo.  5s. 

Cunningham  (Rev.  John).— THE  GROWTH  OFTHE  CHURCH 
IN  ITS  ORGANISATION  AND  INSTITUTIONS.  8vo.  9s. 

Dale  (A.  W.  W.)— THE  SYNOD  OF  ELVIRA,  AND  CHRIS¬ 
TIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.  Cr.  8vo.  1  os.  6d. 

Hardwick  (Archdeacon).— A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH.  Middle  Age.  Ed.  by  Bishop  Stubbs.  Cr.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  DURING  THE 
REFORMATION.  Revised  by  Bishop  Stubbs.  Cr.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

Hort  (Dr.  F.  J.  A.)  — TWO  DISSERTATIONS.  I.  On 
MONOTENHS  GEOS  in  Scripture  and  Tradition.  II.  On  the 
“  Constantinopolitan  ”  Creed  and  other  Eastern  Creeds  of  the 
Fourth  Century.  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Killen  (W.  D.)— ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY  OF  IRE¬ 
LAND,  FROM  THE  EARLIEST  DATE  TO  THE  PRESENT 
TIME.  2  vols.  8vo.  25s. 

Simpson  (W.)— AN  EPITOME  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Vaughan  (Very  Rev.  C.  J.,  Dean  of  Llandaff). — THE  CHURCH 
OF  THE  FIRST  DAYS.  The  Church  of  Jerusalem.  The 
Church  of  the  Gentiles.  The  Church  of  the  World. 
Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

Ward  (W.)  — WILLIAM  GEORGE  WARD  AND  THE 
OXFORD  MOVEMENT.  Portrait.  8vo.  14s. 


Cbe  Cburcb  of  lEnglanb 

Catechism  of — 

A  CLASS-BOOK  OF  THE  CATECHISM  OF  THE  CHURCH 
OF  ENGLAND.  By  Rev.  Canon  Maclear.  i8mo.  is.  6d. 

A  FIRST  CLASS-BOOK  OF  THE  CATECHISM  OF  THE 
CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND,  with  Scripture  Proofs  for  Junior 
Classes  and  Schools.  By  the  same.  i8mo.  6d. 

THE  ORDER  OF  CONFIRMATION,  with  Prayers  and  Devo¬ 
tions.  By  the  Rev.  Canon  Maclear.  321110.  6d. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


7 


Collects — 

COLLECTS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  With  a 
Coloured  Floral  Design  to  each  Collect.  Crown  8vo.  12s. 

Disestablishment — 

DISESTABLISHMENT  AND  DISENDOWMENT.  What  are 
they?  By  Prof.  E.  A.  Freeman.  4th  Edition.  Crown  8 vo.  is. 

DISESTABLISHMENT  :  or,  A  Defence  of  the  Principle  of  a 
National  Church.  By  George  PIarwood.  8vo.  12s. 

A  DEFENCE  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  AGAINST 
DISESTABLISHMENT.  By  Roundell,  Earl  of  Selborne. 
Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

ANCIENT  FACTS  &  FICTIONS  CONCERNING  CHURCHES 
AND  TITHES.  By  the  same.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Dissent  in  its  Relation  to — 

DISSENT  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENG¬ 
LAND.  By  Rev.  G.  H.  Curteis.  Bampton  Lectures  for  1871. 
Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Holy  Communion — 

THE  COMMUNION  SERVICE  FROM  THE  BOOK  OF 
COMMON  PRAYER,  with  Select  Readings  from  the  Writings 
of  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice.  Edited  by  Bishop  Colenso.  6th 
Edition.  i6mo.  2s.  6d. 

BEFORE  THE  TABLE  :  An  Inquiry,  Historical  and  Theological, 
into  the  Meaning  of  the  Consecration  Rubric  in  the  Communion 
Service  of  the  Church  of  England.  By  Very  Rev.  J.  S.  Howson. 
8vo.  7s.  6d. 

FIRST  COMMUNION,  with  Prayers  and  Devotions  for  the  newly 
Confirmed.  By  Rev.  Canon  Maclear.  32mo.  6d. 

A  MANUAL  OF  INSTRUCTION  FOR  CONFIRMATION  AND 
FIRST  COMMUNION,  with  Prayers  and  Devotions.  By  the 
same.  32mo.  2s. 

Liturgy — 

A  COMPANION  TO  THE  LECTIONARY.  By  Rev.  W.  Benham, 
B.D.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  CREEDS.  By  Rev.  Canon 
Maclear.  i8mo.  3s.  6d. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  THIRTY- NINE  ARTICLES. 
By  the  same.  i8mo.  \In  the  Press. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  By 
Rev.  F.  Procter.  18th  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

AN  ELEMENTARY  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  BOOK  OF 
COMMON  PRAYER.  By  Rev.  F.  Procter  and  Rev.  Canon 
Maclear.  i8mo.  2s.  6d. 

TWELVE  DISCOURSES  ON  SUBJECTS  CONNECTED  WITH 
THE  LITURGY  AND  WORSHIP  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF 
ENGLAND.  By  Very  Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan.  4th  Edition. 
Fcap.  8 vo.  6s. 


8 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.’S 


Devotional  Books 

Brooke  (S.  A.)  — FORM  OF  MORNING  AND  EVENING 
PRAYER,  and  for  the  Administration  of  the  Lord’s  Supper, 
together  with  the  Baptismal  and  Marriage  Services,  Bedford 
Chapel,  Bloomsbury.  Fcap.  8vo.  is.  net. 

Eastlake  (Lady).— FELLOWSHIP:  LETTERS  ADDRESSED 
TO  MY  SISTER-MOURNERS.  Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

IMITATIO  CHRISTI,  Libri  IV.  Printed  in  Borders  after  Holbein, 
Diirer,  and  other  old  Masters,  containing  Dances  of  Death,  Acts  of 
Mercy,  Emblems,  etc.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Kingsley  (Charles).  —  OUT  OF  THE  DEEP:  WORDS 
FOR  THE  SORROWFUL.  From  the  writings  of  Charles 
Kingsley.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

DAILY  THOUGHTS.  Selected  from  the  Writings  of  Charles 
Kingsley.  By  his  Wife.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

FROM  DEATH  TO  LIFE.  Fragments  of  Teaching  to  a  Village 
Congregation.  With  Letters  on  the  “Life  after  Death.”  Edited 
by  his  Wife.  Fcap.  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

Maclear  (Rev.  Canon).— A  MANUAL  OF  INSTRUCTION 
FOR  CONFIRMATION  AND  FIRST  COMMUNION,  WITH 
PRAYERS  AND  DEVOTIONS.  32mo.  2s. 

THE  HOUR  OF  SORROW;  OR,  THE  OFFICE  FOR  THE 
BURIAL  OF  THE  DEAD.  32mo.  2s. 

Maurice  (Frederick  Denison). — LESSONS  OF  HOPE.  Readings 
from  the  Works  of  F.  D.  Maurice.  Selected  by  Rev.  J.  Ll. 
Davies,  M.A.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

RAYS  OF  SUNLIGHT  FOR  DARK  DAYS.  With  a  Preface  by 
Very  Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan,  D.D.  New  Edition.  i8mo.  3s.  6d. 

Service  (Rev.  John).— PRAYERS  FOR  PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 
Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

THE  WORSHIP  OF  GOD,  AND  FELLOWSHIP  AMONG  MEN. 
By  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  and  others.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Welby- Gregory  (The  Hon.  Lady).— LINKS  AND  CLUES. 
2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Westcott  (Rt.  Rev.  B.  F.,  Bishop  of  Durham). — THOUGHTS 
ON  REVELATION  AND  LIFE.  Selections  from  the  Writings 
of  Bishop  Westcott.  Edited  by  Rev.  S.  Phillips.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Wilbraham  (Frances  M.)— IN  THE  SERE  AND  YELLOW 
LEAF:  THOUGHTS  AND  RECOLLECTIONS  FOR  OLD 
AND  YOUNG.  Globe  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

TTbe  jfatbers 

Cunningham  (Rev.  W.)— THE  EPISTLE  OF  ST.  BARNABAS. 
A  Dissertation,  including  a  Discussion  of  its  Date  and  Author¬ 
ship.  Together  with  the  Greek  Text,  the  Latin  Version,  and  a 
New  English  Translation  and  Commentary.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


9 


Donaldson  (Prof.  James). — THE  APOSTOLICAL  FATHERS. 
A  Critical  Account  of  their  Genuine  Writings,  and  of  their  Doctrines. 
2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Lightfoot  (Bishop).— THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  Part  I. 
St.  Clement  of  Rome.  Revised  Texts,  with  Introductions, 
Notes,  Dissertations,  and  Translations.  2  vols.  8vo.  32s. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  Part  II.  St.  Ignatius  to  St.  Poly¬ 
carp.  Revised  Texts,  with  Introductions,  Notes,  Dissertations,  and 
Translations.  3  vols.  2nd  Edition.  Demy  8vo.  48s. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  Abridged  Edition.  With  Short 
Introductions,  Greek  Text,  and  English  Translation.  8vo.  16s. 

1b\>mnolo3£ 

Brooke  (S.  A.) — CHRISTIAN  HYMNS.  Edited  and  arranged. 
Fcap.  8vo.  2s.  net. 

This  may  also  be  had  bound  up  with  the  Form  0/ Service  at  Bedford  Chapel ,  Blooms¬ 
bury.  Price  complete,  3s.  net. 

Palgraye  (Prof.  F.  T.)— ORIGINAL  HYMNS.  i8mo.  is.  6d. 

Selborne  (Roundell,  Earl  of) — 

THE  BOOK  OF  PRAISE.  From  the  best  English  Hymn  Writers. 
i8mo.  2s.  6d.  net. 

A  HYMNAL.  Chiefly  from  The  Book  of  Praise.  In  various  sizes. 
— A.  Royal  32mo.  6d. — B.  Small  i8mo,  larger  type.  is. — C. 

Same  Edition,  fine  paper,  is.  6d. — An  Edition  with  Music,  Selected, 
Harmonised,  and  Composed  by  John  Hullah.  Square  i8mo.  3s.  6d. 

Woods  (M.  A.)  — HYMNS  FOR  SCHOOL  WORSHIP. 
Compiled  by  M.  A.  Woods.  i8mo.  is.  6d. 

Sermons,  Xectures,  Stresses,  ant* 
^Theological  Essays 

{See  also  ‘ Bible ,’  *  Church  of  England,'  *  Fathers' ) 

Abbot  (Francis) — 

SCIENTIFIC  THEISM.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

THE  WAY  OUT  OF  AGNOSTICISM  :  or,  The  Philosophy  of 
Free  Religion.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

Abbott  (Rev.  E.  A.) — 

CAMBRIDGE  SERMONS.  8vo.  6s. 

OXFORD  SERMONS.  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

PHILOMYTHUS.  An  Antidote  against  Credulity.  A  discussion 
of  Cardinal  Newman’s  Essay  on  Ecclesiastical  Miracles.  2nd 
Edition.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

NEWMANIANISM.  A  Reply.  Crown  8vo.  Sewed,  is.  net. 
Ainger(Rev.  Alfred,  Canon  of  Bristol). — SERMONS  PREACHED 
IN  THE  TEMPLE  CHURCH.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 


10 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.'S 


Alexander  (W.,  Bishop  of  Derry  and  Raphoe). — THE  LEAD¬ 
ING  IDEAS  OF  THE  GOSPELS.  New  Edition,  Revised 
and  Enlarged.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Baines  (Rev.  Edward). — SERMONS.  With  a  Preface  and 

Memoir,  by  A.  Barry,  D.D.,  late  Bishop  of  Sydney.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Bather  (Archdeacon).— ON  SOME  MINISTERIAL  DUTIES, 
CATECHISING,  PREACHING,  etc.  Edited,  with  a  Preface, 
by  Very  Rev.  C.  J.  Vaughan,  D.D.  Fcap.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

Binnie  (Rev.  William). — SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Birks  (Thomas  Rawson) — 

THE  DIFFICULTIES  OF  BELIEF  IN  CONNECTION  WITH 
THE  CREATION  AND  THE  FALL,  REDEMPTION,  AND 
JUDGMENT.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 
JUSTIFICATION  AND  IMPUTED  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  Being 
a  Review  of  Ten  Sermons  on  the  Nature  and  Effects  of  Faith,  by 
James  Thomas  O’Brien,  D.D.,  late  Bishop  of  Ossory,  Ferns,  and 
Leighlin.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

SUPERNATURAL  REVELATION:  or,  First  Principles  of  Moral 
Theology.  8vo.  8s. 

Brooke  (Rev.  Stopford  A.) — SHORT  SERMONS.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 

Brooks  (Phillips,  Bishop  of  Massachusetts) — 

THE  CANDLE  OF  THE  LORD,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo. 
6s. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  ENGLISH  CHURCHES.  Crown 
8vo.  6s. 

TWENTY  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

TOLERANCE.  Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Brunton  (T.  Lauder).  — THE  BIBLE  AND  SCIENCE. 
With  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

Butler  (Rev.  George).— SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  CHEL¬ 
TENHAM  COLLEGE  CHAPEL.  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Butler  (W.  Archer) — 

SERMONS,  DOCTRINAL  AND  PRACTICAL.  nth  Edition. 
8vo.  8s. 

SECOND  SERIES  OF  SERMONS.  8vo.  7s. 

Campbell  (Dr.  John  M‘Leod) — 

THE  NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  6th  Ed.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 
REMINISCENCES  AND  REFLECTIONS.  Edited  with  an 
Introductory  Narrative,  by  his  Son,  Donald  Campbell,  M.A. 
Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

THOUGHTS  ON  REVELATION.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 
RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  THE  GIFT  OF  ETERNAL  LIFE. 
Compiled  from  Sermons  preached  at  Row,  in  the  years  1829-31. 
Crown  8 vo.  5  s. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


li 


Canterbury  (Edward  White,  Archbishop  of) — 

BOY-LIFE  :  its  Trial,  its  Strength,  its  Fulness.  Sundays  in 
Wellington  College,  1859-73.  4th  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  SEVEN  GIFTS.  Addressed  to  the  Diocese  of  Canterbury  in 
his  Primary  Visitation.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

CHRIST  AND  HIS  TIMES.  Addressed  to  the  Diocese  of  Canter¬ 
bury  in  his  Second  Visitation.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Carpenter  (W.  Boyd,  Bishop  of  Ripon) — 

TRUTH  IN  TALE.  Addresses,  chiefly  to  Children.  Crown  8vo. 
4s.  6d. 

THE  PERMANENT  ELEMENTS  OF  RELIGION  :  Bampton 
Lectures,  1887.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Cazenove  (J.  Gibson).— CONCERNING  THE  BEING  AND 
ATTRIBUTES  OF  GOD.  8vo.  5s. 

Church  (Dean) — 

HUMAN  LIFE  AND  ITS  CONDITIONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  GIFTS  OF  CIVILISATION,  and  other  Sermons  and  Lectures. 
2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

DISCIPLINE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER,  and  other 
Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

ADVENT  SERMONS.  1885.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

VILLAGE  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

CATHEDRAL  AND  UNIVERSITY  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

CLERGYMAN’S  SELF-EXAMINATION  CONCERNING  THE 
APOSTLES’  CREED.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  is.  6d. 

Congreve  (Rev.  John).— HIGH  HOPES  AND  PLEADINGS 
FOR  A  REASONABLE  FAITH,  NOBLER  THOUGHTS, 
LARGER  CHARITY.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

Cooke  (Josiah  P.,  Jun.)  — RELIGION  AND  CHEMISTRY. 
Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Cotton  (Bishop).— SERMONS  PREACPIED  TO  ENGLISH 
CONGREGATIONS  IN  INDIA.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Cunningham  (Rev.  W.)  —  CHRISTIAN  CIVILISATION, 
WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  INDIA.  Cr.  8vo.  5s. 

Curteis  (Rev.  G.  H.)— THE  SCIENTIFIC  OBSTACLES  TO 
CHRISTIAN  BELIEF.  The  Boyle  Lectures,  1884.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 

Davies  (Rev.  J.  Llewelyn) — 

THE  GOSPEL  AND  MODERN  LIFE.  2nd  Edition,  to  which  is 
added  Morality  according  to  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper. 
Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 

SOCIAL  QUESTIONS  FROM  THE  POINT'  OF  VIEW  OF 
CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

WARNINGS  AGAINST  SUPERSTITION.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CALLING.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 

ORDER  AND  GROWTH  AS  INVOLVED  IN  THE!  SPIRITUAL 
CONSTITUTION  OF  HUMAN  SOCIETY.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 


12 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.’S 


Davies  (Rev.  J.  Llewelyn) — continued. 

BAPTISM,  CONFIRMATION,  AND  THE  LORD’S  SUPPER, 
as  interpreted  by  their  Outward  Signs.  Three  Addresses.  New 
Edition.  i8mo.  is. 

Diggle  (Rev.  J.  W.)  —  GODLINESS  AND  MANLINESS. 
A  Miscellany  of  Brief  Papers  touching  the  Relation  of  Religion  to 
Life.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Drummond  (Prof.  James). — INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 
STUDY  OF  THEOLOGY.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

ECCE  HOMO.  A  Survey  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  Christ. 
20th  Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

Ellerton  (Rev.  John).  — THE  HOLIEST  MANHOOD,  AND 
ITS  LESSONS  FOR  BUSY  LIVES.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

FAITH  AND  CONDUCT  :  An  Essay  on  Verifiable  Religion.  Crown 
8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Farrar  (Ven.  F.  W.,  Archdeacon  of  Westminster) — 

THE  HISTORY  OF  INTERPRETATION.  Being  the  Bampton 
Lectures,  1885.  8vo.  16s. 

Collected  Edition  of  the  Sermons,  etc.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

each. 

SEEKERS  AFTER  GOD. 

ETERNAL  HOPE.  Sermons  Preached  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
THE  FALL  OF  MAN,  and  other  Sermons. 

THE  WITNESS  OF  HISTORY  TO  CHRIST.  Hulsean  Lectures. 
THE  SILENCE  AND  VOICES  OF  GOD. 

IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THY  YOUTH.  Sermons  on  Practical  Subjects. 
SAINTLY  WORKERS.  Five  Lenten  Lectures. 

EPHPHATHA  :  or,  The  Amelioration  of  the  World. 

MERCY  AND  JUDGMENT.  A  few  last  words  on  Christian  Eschat¬ 
ology. 

SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES  delivered  in  America. 

Fiske  (John). — MAN’S  DESTINY  VIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT 
OF  HIS  ORIGIN.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Forbes  (Rev.  Granville).— THE  VOICE  OF  GOD  IN  THE 
PSALMS.  Crown  8vo.  6s.  6d. 

Fowle  (Rev.  T.  W.)— A  NEW  ANALOGY  BETWEEN 
REVEALED  RELIGION  AND  THE  COURSE  AND  CON¬ 
STITUTION  OF  NATURE.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Fraser  (Bishop).  —  SERMONS.  Edited  by  Rev.  John  W. 

Diggle.  2  vols.  Crown  8vo.  6s.  each. 

Hamilton  (John) — 

ON  TRUTH  AND  ERROR.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

ARTHUR’S  SEAT :  or,  The  Church  of  the  Banned.  Crown 
8vo.  6s. 

ABOVE  AND  AROUND :  Thoughts  on  God  and  Man.  i2mo.  2s.  6d. 
Hardwick  (Archdeacon).  —  CHRIST  AND  OTHER  MAS¬ 
TERS.  6th  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE  13 

Hare  (Julius  Charles) — 

THE  MISSION  OF  THE  COMFORTER.  New  Edition.  Edited 
by  Dean  Plumptre.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

THE  VICTORY  OF  FAITH.  Edited  by  Dean  Plumptre,  with 
Introductory  Notices  by  Prof.  Maurice  and  Dean  Stanley. 
Crown  8vo.  6s.  6d. 

Harper  (Father  Thomas,  S.J.)— THE  METAPHYSICS  OF  THE 
SCHOOL.  In  5  vols.  Vols.  I.  and  II.  8vo.  18s.  each. 
Vol.  III.  Part  I.  1 2s. 

Harris  (Rev.  G.  C.)  —  SERMONS.  With  a  Memoir  by 
Charlotte  M.  Yonge,  and  Portrait.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 

Hutton  (R.  H.)— 

ESSAYS  ON  SOME  OF  THE  MODERN  GUIDES  OF  ENG¬ 
LISH  THOUGHT  IN  MATTERS  OF  FAITH.  Globe8vo.  6s. 

THEOLOGICAL  ESSAYS.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

Illingworth  (Rev.  J.  R.)— SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  A 
COLLEGE  CHAPEL.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

UNIVERSITY  AND  CATHEDRAL  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo. 

the  Pres s, 

Jacob  (Rev.  J.  A.)  — BUILDING  IN  SILENCE,  and  other 
Sermons.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 

James  (Rev.  Herbert).— THE  COUNTRY  CLERGYMAN 
AND  HIS  WORK.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Jeans  (Rev.  G.  E.) — HAILEYBURY  CHAPEL,  and  other 
Sermons.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Jellett  (Rev.  Dr.) — 

THE  ELDER  SON,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  3rd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

Kellogg  (Rev.  S.  H.)— THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA  AND  THE 
LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

THE  GENESIS  AND  GROWTH  OF  RELIGION.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 

Kingsley  (Charles) — 

VILLAGE  AND  TOWN  AND  COUNTRY  SERMONS.  Crown 
8vo.  3s.  6d. 

THE  WATER  OF  LIFE,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

SERMONS  ON  NATIONAL  SUBJECTS,  AND  THE  KING  OF 
THE  EARTH.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

SERMONS  FOR  THE  TIMES.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

GOOD  NEWS  OF  GOD.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH,  AND  DAVID.  Crown 
8vo.  3s.  6d. 

DISCIPLINE,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

WESTMINSTER  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

ALL  SAINTS’  DAY,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Kirkpatrick  (Prof.  A.  F.)— THE  DIVINE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 
OLD  TESTAMENT.  Its  Origin,  Preservation,  Inspiration,  and 
Permanent  Value.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  net. 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.’S 


Kirkpatrick  (Prof.  A.  F.) — continued. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  Warburtonian  Lectures 
1886-1890.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Kynaston  (Rev.  Herbert,  D.D.)— SERMONS  PREACHED  IN 
THE  COLLEGE  CHAPEL,  CHELTENHAM.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Lightfoot  (Bishop) — 

LEADERS  IN  THE  NORTHERN  CHURCH  :  Sermons  Preached 
in  the  Diocese  of  Durham.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

ORDINATION  ADDRESSES  AND  COUNSELS  TO  CLERGY. 
Crown  8vo.  6s. 

CAMBRIDGE  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  ST.  PAUL’S  CATHEDRAL.  Crown 
8vo.  6s. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  ON  SPECIAL  OCCASIONS.  Crown 
8vo.  6s. 

A  CHARGE  DELIVERED  TO  THE  CLERGY  OF  THE 
DIOCESE  OF  DURHAM,  25th  Nov.  1886.  Demy  8vo.  2s. 

ESSAYS  ON  THE  WORK  ENTITLED  “Supernatural  Reli¬ 
gion.”  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

DISSERTATIONS  ON  THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE.  8vo.  14s. 

BIBLICAL  MISCELLANIES.  8vo.  [In  the  Press. 

Maclaren  (Rev.  Alexander) — 

SERMONS  PREACHED  AT  MANCHESTER.  nth  Edition. 
Fcap.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

A  SECOND  SERIES  OF  SERMONS.  7th  Ed.  Fcap.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

A  THIRD  SERIES.  6th  Edition.  Fcap.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

WEEK-DAY  EVENING  ADDRESSES.  4th  Ed.  Fcap.  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

THE  SECRET  OF  POWER,  AND  OTHER  SERMONS.  Fcap. 
8vo.  4s.  6d. 

Macmillan  (Rev.  Hugh) — 

BIBLE  TEACHINGS  IN  NATURE.  15th  Ed.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  TRUE  VINE  ;  OR,  THE  ANALOGIES  OF  OUR  LORD’S 
ALLEGORY.  5th  Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  NATURE.  8th  Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  SABBATH  OF  THE  FIELDS.  6th  Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  MARRIAGE  IN  CANA.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

TWO  WORLDS  ARE  OURS.  3rd  Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  OLIVE  LEAF.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

THE  GATE  BEAUTIFUL  AND  OTHER  BIBLE  TEACHINGS 
FOR  THE  YOUNG.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Mahaffy  (Rev.  Prof.)— THE  DECAY  OF  MODERN  PREACH¬ 
ING  :  AN  ESSAY.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Maturin  (Rev.  W.)— THE  BLESSEDNESS  OF  THE  DEAD 
IN  CHRIST.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Maurice  (Frederick  Denison) — 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  CHRIST.  3rd  Ed.  2  Vols.  Cr.  8vo.  12s. 

EXPOSITORY  SERMONS  ON  THE  PRAYER-BOOK  ;  AND  ON 
THE  LORD’S  PRAYER.  New  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


15 


Maurice  (Frederick  Denison) — continued. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  COUNTRY  CHURCHES.  2nd 
Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  CONSCIENCE.  Lectures  on  Casuistry.  3rd  Ed.  Cr.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

DIALOGUES  ON  FAMILY  WORSHIP.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  SACRIFICE  DEDUCED  FROM  THE 
SCRIPTURES.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  WORLD.  6th  Edition.  Cr.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

ON  THE  SABBATH  DAY;  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE 
WARRIOR;  AND  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF 
HISTORY.  Fcap.  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

LEARNING  AND  WORKING.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

THE  LORD’S  PRAYER,  THE  CREED,  AND  THE  COM¬ 
MANDMENTS.  i8mo.  is. 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  LINCOLN’S  INN  CHAPEL.  In  Six 
Volumes.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d.  each. 

Collected  Works.  Monthly  Volumes  from  October  1892. 
Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d.  each. 

CHRISTMAS  DAY  AND  OTHER  SERMONS. 

THEOLOGICAL  ESSAYS. 

PROPHETS  AND  KINGS. 

PATRIARCHS  AND  LAWGIVERS. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN. 

GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

EPISTLE  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  APOCALYPSE. 

FRIENDSHIP  OF  BOOKS. 

SOCIAL  MORALITY. 

PRAYER  BOOK  AND  LORD’S  PRAYER. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  SACRIFICE. 

Milligan  (Rev.  Prof.  W.) — THE  RESURRECTION  OF  OUR 
LORD.  Fourth  Thousand.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

THE  ASCENSION  AND  HEAVENLY  PRIESTHOOD  OF 
OUR  LORD.  Baird  Lectures ,  1891.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Moorhouse  (J.,  Bishop  of  Manchester) — 

JACOB  :  Three  Sermons.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  CHRIST.  Its  Conditions,  Secret,  and 
Results.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  net. 

Mylne  (L.  G.,  Bishop  of  Bombay). — SERMONS  PREACHED 
IN  ST.  THOMAS’S  CATHEDRAL,  BOMBAY.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

NATURAL  RELIGION.  By  the  author  of  “  Ecce  Homo.”  3rd 
Edition.  Globe  8vo.  6s. 

Pattison  (Mark). — SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

PAUL  OF  TARSUS.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

PHILOCHRISTUS.  Memoirs  of  a  Disciple  of  the  Lord.  3rd  Ed.  8vo.  12s. 


i6 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.’S 


Plumptre  (Dean).  —  MOVEMENTS  IN  RELIGIOUS 
THOUGHT.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Potter  (R.)— ‘ THE  RELATION  OF  ETHICS  TO  RELIGION. 
Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

REASONABLE  FAITH  :  A  Short  Religious  Essay  for  the  Times.  By 
“ Three  Friends.”  Crown  8vo.  is. 

Reichel  (C.  P.,  Bishop  of  Meath) — 

THE  LORD’S  PRAYER,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

CATHEDRAL  AND  UNIVERSITY  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Rendall  (Rev.  F.)— THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  HEBREW 
CHRISTIANS.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

Reynolds  (H.  R.)— NOTES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 
Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Robinson  (Prebendary  H.  G.)— MAN  IN  THE  IMAGE  OF 
GOD,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Russell  (Dean).— THE  LIGHT  THAT  LIGHTETFI  EVERY 
MAN  :  Sermons.  With  an  introduction  by  Dean  Plumptrf, 
D.D.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Salmon  (Rev.  Prof.  George) — 

NON-MIRACULOUS  CHRISTIANITY,  and  other  Sermons.  2nd 
Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

GNOSTICISM  AND  AGNOSTICISM,  and  other  Sermons.  Crown 
8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Sandford  (C.  W.,  Bishop  of  Gibraltar).  — COUNSEL  TO 
ENGLISH  CHURCHMEN  ABROAD.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

SCOTCH  SERMONS,  1880.  By  Principal  Caird  and  others.  3rd 
Edition.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

Service  (Rev.  John). — SERMONS.  With  Portrait.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Shirley  (W.  N.) — ELIJAH  :  Four  University  Sermons.  Fcap. 
8vo.  2s.  6d. 

Smith  (Rev.  Travers).— MAN’S  KNOWLEDGE  OF  MAN 
AND  OF  GOD.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Smith  (W.  Saumarez).— THE  BLOOD  OF  THE  NEW 
COVENANT  :  A  Theological  Essay.  Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

Stanley  (Dean) — 

THE  NATIONAL  THANKSGIVING.  Sermons  preached  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

ADDRESSES  AND  SERMONS  delivered  during  a  visit  to  the 
United  States  and  Canada  in  1878.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Stewart  (Prof.  Balfour)  and  Tait  (Prof.  P.  G.) — THE  UNSEEN 
UNIVERSE;  OR,  PHYSICAL  SPECULATIONS  ON  A 
FUTURE  STATE.  15th  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

PARADOXICAL  PHILOSOPHY:  A  Sequel  to  “The  Unseen 
Universe.”  Crown  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Stubbs  (Rev.  C.  W.)— FOR  CHRIST  AND  CITY.  Sermons 
and  Addresses.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 


THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


17 


Tait  (Archbishop) — 

THE  PRESENT  POSITION  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND. 

Being  the  Charge  delivered  at  his  Primary  Visitation.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 
DUTIES  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  Being  seven 
Addresses  delivered  at  his  Second  Visitation.  Svo.  4s.  6d. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  FUTURE.  Charges  delivered  at  his 
Third  Quadrennial  Visitation.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  Svo.  3s.  6d. 

Taylor  (Isaac).— THE  RESTORATION  OF  BELIEF.  Crown 
Svo.  8s.  6d. 

Temple  (Frederick,  Bishop  of  London) — 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  THE  CHAPEL  OF  RUGBY 
SCHOOL.  SECOND  SERIES.  3rd  Edition.  Extra  fcap.  Svo.  6s. 
THIRD  SERIES.  4th  Edition.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  6s. 

THE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE. 
Bampton  Lectures,  1884.  7  th  and  Cheaper  Ed.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 

Trench  (Archbishop).— HULSEAN  LECTURES.  8vo.  7s.  6d. 

Tulloch  (Principal).— THE  CHRIST  OF  THE  GOSPELS 
AND  THE  CHRIST  OF  MODERN  CRITICISM.  Extra 
•  fcap.  Svo.  4s.  6d. 

Vaughan  (C.  J.,  Dean  of  Llandaff) — 

MEMORIALS  OF  HARROW  SUNDAYS.  5th  Edition.  Crown 
Svo.  10s.  6d. 

EPIPHANY,  LENT,  AND  EASTER.  3rd  Ed.  Cr.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 
HEROES  OF  FAITH.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

LIFE’S  WORK  AND  GOD’S  DISCIPLINE.  3rd  Edition. 
Extra  fcap.  8vo.  2s.  6d. 

THE  WHOLESOME  WORDS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  2nd 
Edition.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

FOES  OF  FAITH.  2nd  Edition.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

CHRIST  SATISFYING  THE  INSTINCTS  OF  HUMANITY. 

2nd  Edition.  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

COUNSELS  FOR  YOUNG  STUDENTS.  Fcap.  Svo.  2s.  6d. 
THE  TWO  GREAT  TEMPTATIONS.  2nd  Ed.  Fcap.  8vo.  3s.  6d. 
ADDRESSES  FOR  YOUNG  CLERGYMEN.  Extra  fcap.  Svo. 
4s.  6d. 

“  MY  SON,  GIVE  ME  THINE  HEART.”  Extra  fcap.  8vo.  5s. 
REST  AWHILE.  Addresses  to  Toilers  in  the  Ministry.  Extra  fcap. 
8vo.  5s. 

TEMPLE  SERMONS.  Crown  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

AUTHORISED  OR  REVISED?  Sermons  on  some  of  the  Texts  in 
which  the  Revised  Version  differs  from  the  Authorised.  Crown 
8vo.  7s.  6d. 

LESSONS  OF  THE  CROSS  AND  PASSION.  WORDS  FROM 
THE  CROSS.  THE  REIGN  OF  SIN.  THE  LORD’S 
PRAYER.  Four  Courses  of  Lent  Lectures.  Crown  Svo.  10s.  6d. 
UNIVERSITY  SERMONS.  NEW  AND  OLD.  Cr.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 


t8  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.’S  THEOLOGICAL  CATALOGUE 


Vaughan  (C.  J.,  Dean  of  Llandaff) — continued. 

NOTES  FOR  LECTURES  ON  CONFIRMATION.  Fcap.  8vo. 
is.  6d. 

THE  PRAYERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  :  a  closing  volume  of  Lent 
Lectures  delivered  in  the  Temple  Church.  Globe  8vo.  3s.  6d. 
DONCASTER  SERMONS.  Lessons  of  Life  and  Godliness,  and 
Words  from  the  Gospels.  Cr.  8vo.  10s.  6d. 

RESTFUL  THOUGHTS  IN  RESTLESS  TIMES.  Crown  8vo. 

[In  the  Press,. 

Vaughan  (Rev.  D.  J.)— THE  PRESENT  TRIAL  OF  FAITH. 
Crown  8vo.  9s. 

Vaughan  (Rev.  E.  T.)— SOME  REASONS  OF  OUR  CHRIS¬ 
TIAN  HOPE.  Hulsean  Lectures  for  1875.  Crown  8vo.  6s.  6d. 
Vaughan  (Rev.  Robert).  — STONES  FROM  THE  QUARRY. 
Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  5s. 

Venn  (Rev.  John).— ON  SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF 
BELIEF,  SCIENTIFIC  AND  RELIGIOUS.  8vo.  6s.  6d. 
Warington(G.)— THE  WEEK  OF  CREATION.  Cr.  8vo.  4s.  6d. 
Welldon  (Rev.  J.  E.  C.)— THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE,  and 
other  Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

Westcott  (B.  F.,  Bishop  of  Durham) — 

ON  THE  RELIGIOUS  OFFICE  OF  THE  UNIVERSITIES. 
Sermons.  Crown  8vo.  4s.  6d. 

GIFTS  FOR  MINISTRY.  Addresses  to  Candidates  for  Ordination. 
Crown  8vo.  is.  6d. 

THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  CROSS.  Sermons  preached  during  Holy 
Week,  1888,  in  Hereford  Cathedral.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

FROM  STRENGTH  TO  STRENGTH.  Three  Sermons  (In 
Memoriam  J.  B.  D.)  Crown  8vo.  2s. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  RISEN  LORD.  Cr.  Svo.  6s. 
THE  HISTORIC  FAITH.  3rd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.  6th  Ed.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 
THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  FATHER.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 
CHRISTUS  CONSUMMATOR.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 
SOME  THOUGHTS  FROM  THE  ORDINAL.  Cr.  8vo.  is.  6d. 
SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 
ESSAYS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT  IN 
THE  WEST.  Globe  Svo.  6s. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  LIFE.  Cr.  8vo.  6s. 

Wickham  (Rev.  E.  C.)— WELLINGTON  COLLEGE 

SERMONS.  Crown  Svo.  6s. 

Wilkins  (Prof.  A.  S.)— THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD  :  an 
Essay.  2nd  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  3s.  6d. 

Wilson  (J.  M.,  Archdeacon  of  Manchester) — 

SERMONS  PREACHED  IN  CLIFTON  COLLEGE  CHAPEL. 

Second  Series.  1888-90.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 

ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES.  Crown  Svo.  4s.  6d. 

SOME  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 
OF  OUR  TIME.  Crown  8vo.  6s. 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Ci.  ark,  Edinburgh 


vi.  50.1. 93 


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